When you're getting nothing from other services, even undervalued is an improvement. The influx of new users is huge in Steemit and it takes time to find worthy authors to support. But it is in stakeholders best interest to embed good contributors to the platform, it just can take time.

I've seen the people I follow slowly but surely build a following and a good income from Steem. I'm consider dropping some of them and finding new authors to support. I guess many like me with decent stake are thinking the same.

As Steem ecosystem grows as whole, putting out great quality content will eventually get you noticed as it will reward the finders as well and the whales. It's a win win. Also people shouldn't be too shy to self promote. There are discord groups and steemit.chat that let you do that.

I'm also quite excited and believe we're just in the very beginning! Steem on :)