I hear everything you say. I decided to focus on earning money here until I could get a bit of power (5000 sp and then we'll see). There are ways for minnows to make money without a lot of support from whales.

I've got a whale bot of a fairly small amount, but also the bots of smaller people who add up to be more than the big guy. And for a bonus, the smaller ones actually visit my posts and comment. They just use the bots to catch the post and vote at the right time.

And yes, the time suck is outrageous for me too. I have a lot of social media balls in the air and I have dropped some while others are going crazy thanks to steemit.

I wrote this old post with about 15 ways to make money when you are new and I make money with these ideas. not a lot, but over time, it is increasing. Maybe some of these tips will help you too.

Make Money Blogging on Steemit Top Tips and Checklist for Better Results!!