If I am not mistaken, your vests are based on your steem power, which can be increased by simply buying steem and converting it. Which means, no effort required if you are willing to make the purchase required. I think reputation is a better measure of success, because you have to be given that by other people with higher reps voting on your posts.

Still, neither way is a good judge of quality. I see a lot of garbage books becoming best sellers, while great books go unpublished or end up in the 'discount' bin. Same goes for Steemit posts. There is the maxim that, if you want a book to sell, then there has to be 'a lot of blood on the cover, or sex between them'. In both the real world and steemit, quality isn't what sells. You have to choose between writing to get the upvotes and writing what needs to be written. I think we all need to remember that rep, vests, sales... are not indicators of just how good your work is. They are only indicators of how well you tap into the existing audience's hunger for something.

Sorry if it's a little grim, but it's the best advice I can give.