Great way to visualize Steemit, through your picture of a circle. I can completely agree that as time goes on within the community, a user may not have the attention but quality content is still important as when a whale does see your post, you want to make a good impression. Steemit is related to the entertainment industry, in my head, as when you first join the platform you don't have much of an audience. With time and making sure to put quality out, you audience grows and thus your earning grow and most importantly for the long term, your earning potential grows! I look at it as an artist in the music industry who is better than most people in the industry except he had been "found" yet. It's also cool because when your are around for a bit, you occasionally find someone just starting out and it makes you feel like you "discovered" the person. Kinda like a talent scout.
I hope that I made some sort of sense out of an abstract question. Got my brain flowing early today and I can appreciate that :)