"...if you've got a whale on your side, someone with upvote bots, a network of friends / backers / followers or Mr. Benjamin Franklin himself you can post literally anything and generate hundreds."

No. @ranchorelaxo was on @haejin's side.
Many were on @krnel's side, once.

These rogue upvotes of the plebs were a threat to the entire purpose of Steemit, and were crushed. Their rewards were returned to the rewards pool, where the 39 whales could get them, as is the purpose of stakeweighting.

As long as plebs impact the rewards pool insignificantly, they're fine. When they threaten the ROI of whales, they need to be crushed.

Wise dolphins know this. They post their $hundreds earning posts but rarely, and thus are permitted.

This is the Steemit way.