My experience is that followers matter a lot. I've slightly touched on the subject here: https://steemit.com/steemit/@vimukthi/interesting-observations-about-loyalties-on-steemit
I've also noticed that getting an upvote bot right after posting attracts a bunch of votes from minnows. People vote what's already been voted to some extent.
Being on the trending page also helps.
Your post had far more views and less upvotes. Your voters are minnows. I've been facing similar situations. My average vote value used to be at 4 cents. The votes on steemit are weighted based on SP. The quality content gets you followers. For each post I make, I end up with about 5-10 new followers. Quality certainly works. It's just those votes have less SP backing them.
At least be glad that we are still at least earlier to the party than most. We haven't even reached 500K users yet.
I do not particularly agree... if you are a minnow with low reputation, it's very difficult that your followers are whales or dolphins.
Just now, with my reputation over 50, I "hung up" followers with some influence.
You have to read my post as a minnow with reputation under 50 or 40... it's very difficult to be noticed even with some quality posts...
What I've tried to say is that the "kind/content" of followers you have matters a lot. Quality content attracts followers and your followers are more likely to be your voters. A good amount of your upvotes will come from them. If you managed to get at least few dolphins as followers, then your posts can earn decent amounts.
Using upvote bots have helped me with the visibility too. Also good titles help in my experience.
I understood you, but still don't agree with part of your comment.
To hold different ideas is important :-)