The most interesting aspect of Steemit, to me, is seeing if socialism will make its way here, heh. There are already warning signs to been: "Spread the wealth!"
Of course it's pretty obvious that most people who upvote popular content don't even read the posts, they are upvoting for the curation rewards.
However, complaining about it won't help. Work on your material, work on your following and keep posting. It takes hard work to be succesful, in any avenue of life. Steemit is no different.