With success always comes trouble.

Jealousy, questions... sometimes hate.

This is part of the game, and most people would choose to ignore the inquisitors. I am happy to read this post as an answer to them. An honest answer where the author openly expresses his feeling. Not everybody would do this.

That said...
Bottom line is: the hidden gems are useful to steemit, and the fact that that the author makes money out of it is a positive side effect. Period.

It helps diversity of content.

Imho, so called "haters" should spend their energy promoting other authors, and create more whales like @dragonslayer109.
And if they want to discuss about the system and how it is unfair: just have a look to the trending list and watch some whales accounts milking it and using the system to generate massive revenues with somehow average quality posts.

At least, initiatives from Dragonslayer help others.

In the end, if you still disagree with me, don't forget that the responsibles are NOT the authors, they are the voters.

@sebastien
Note: I pick hidden gems for the French community, willing to help, and my last post made an outrageous $0.75.
Please hate me.