Some people sad that KR is a very good community as newbie can also get support from the whale, so that you can see all KR post had high payout as they are helping each other. So may be it is why they keeping voting the whale to help them to grow up and stronger the community, helping minnows? Sometime helping people is also a good reason to vote, not just consider the quality of the post I think.
I know in #CN new comer and minnows will get upvote from other CN people for their new posts, as want to help them and develop a better community.
Maybe it is just cultural different? These community they like to help each other, stronger the whale and helping the minnow, not just vote what they like.
Some platform like chxxxxbb and estxxxx will also provide free vote to their user too. It is hard and no reason to stop them I think...