Thanks for the reply and healthy debate. I know what you mean by the word choice, but it didn't sound right before your clarification.

What I respectfully disagree with is that Steem currency/Power holdings makes one appear more valuable over another. Perhaps it's more wealth and influence in my book, but I prefer to define value by how people treat and respect each other at all levels. If price goes to $0, what's left for ranking in this community other than our talents, reputation and follower base?

I've seen absurdly invaluable/spam content and actions by many with immense Steem power, so I try to ignore account balances except for following the money for getting some visibility. I'm generally forced to see whales' posts more because they're always fixed up on the top of my feeds, so sometimes it just appears like they're more valuable in our ecosystem.

Yes, "Brilliant insight, you should upvote and follow me" is lousy content, but I try to keep in mind that some of these people are novices and need to learn what works/doesn't. After a few weeks of getting their content slapped down, I'd imagine that through a process of elimination they'd either quit if that's the best they can do, or start to learn to improve.

With that in mind, I know it's hard to appreciate low value content at face value, but I try to understand that not everyone might be deliberately spamming. A short comment or request for a follow can be sincere, and someone may think what they're doing is the best way to grow here, until they learn. If my country's mean salary was $20 a month, and people made that from one self-upvote on their own posts, I'd sure as hell be overly excited to get my name in front of as many eyes as possible... because any attempt to blog as a minnow is a sinkhole most of the time.