I'm excited about the possibilities here, but came to similar conclusions as pretty quickly. I could post all day everyday and until I curry the favor of one of the "whales" it will do me little good. Now, if they happen across my content and like it, that's great, I'm fine with that. But frankly, I'm not about to go out of my way to beg for their attentions. It's not what I envisioned this platform being about.

I came here because a future where a blockchain tech sort of like STEEMIT could ensure digital content creators always received credit when their content was used, linked, reposted, etc. would be --amazing--

Steemit isn't quite that but it's close. But if these lopsided wealth distributions aren't figured out, you end up with the system you mentioned where discovery often depends on a very small group and it therefore isn't at all an effective way for creators to find an audience. The content creator must first draw notice and approval of the "gatekeepers" before they are even seen which is precisely the problem I rejected in the publishing world.