It is not entirely pointless. Lots of minnow steempower does add up. Plus if you get lots of votes, however small, you start to rise in the "active" tab again. Same thing applies to comments, as soon as a post gets a comment it rises in the active tab. As lots of whales frequent "active" and do so at different times of the day, it should help you post get noticed and voted on by those with more power.