I would argue it's pretty rude

And I would strongly disagree with you. People of influence have influence. That's their reward for being early adopters and taking risk while others were busy doing other things. Or those who were willing to invest and power up STEEM: same thing. They are willing to take risk and convert real value (read: benefits they provided to other human beings in other areas which they were rewarded for by the market) into a speculative investment.

although it's the whale's prerogative.

It certainly is. You can either leave and go somewhere else that better fits what your version of "bs" is or is not, or you can work to gain influence of your own. As it stands now, your comment seems like envy. There's no coercion involved here. It's all completely voluntary. My advice to you: stop being negative and start bringing something positive to the conversation. You just might find yourself rewarded by the network.