This was a really interesting read @dantheman. Thanks for writing this. I am personally really enjoying writing, but I have never looked at posts here or on other platforms in the way you described, so this was indeed a new perspective for me.

In addition to getting the long-term value from Steem, we must also not forget that good posts usually increase our following numbers. Once people get several hundred or even thousands of followers, I bet their earnings from each post would increase a lot, and is in my opinion also a nice bonus for future profit.