You are right that it's getting more difficult for people to get noticed. But that's not because there's any problem with the reward algorithm. It's because there are more and more people posting on the platform! This is why those who upvote good content early on get rewarded more...because they perform a valuable service that helps separate the wheat from the chaff, thereby elevating good content into the view of others that might otherwise miss it. And I don't think it matters whether people are upvoting what they like or what they think others will like. Both add value to the process of elevating content others may like.

There are always exceptions, but overall the process works well. And users who aren't getting noticed have to consider the strong possibility that they are not good enough content creators (at least not yet) and that perhaps they should instead be focused on curating and commenting on the content of others. This will give them an opportunity to build up their steem power (and therefore their influence and reputation), while also improving their writing skills. If/when they try their hand again at creating a post of their own, they will have a greater chance of getting noticed. And of course they may have to go through this cycle multiple times. But there's nothing wrong with that. The system works!