I upvoted your post and this response shouldn't be taken as negative but should be considered for anyone bringing money and time to this platform.

You are right that the whales aren't idiots. They are very smart or lucky or a combination of the two. You have to realize that most of them are trying to make a profit. Who is on Steemit to lose money???? No one! So you have to consider how they ended up at 1 Million Steem Power and access their effort / cost basis in getting there. Also you have to realize that this isn't their first rodeo. They have likely been in the cryto-currency space for 3 or more years. They have seen booms and busts before and know how to hedge their risk.

So let's say this. Let's say they mined a huge chunk of their accounts value and that cost them $2,000 in electricity. That was a big investment considering they weren't sure if the platform would ever be launched. But it is here! So now the $2,000 in electricity coupled with the fact that they were mining STEEM instead of another crypto-currency maybe puts them at $4,000 worth of risk. STEEM went super nova and they were not only able to earn 90% interest on their STEEM power but they were able to power down and extract 1% of their value each week while the price was high. In doing so they might have pulled out their cost basis and then some and might mentally feel like they don't need to pull more out right now.

Or they might say, "I'm going to power down for a month and snag another $30,000. Then I'm going to let the rest of the value ride for now."

It all depends where they are at financially outside of Steemit, what their risk tolerance is. What their outlook is on the platform......etc....etc. It is hard to predict for each individual.

I'm not a whale but I found out about Steemit when STEEM was at it's highest. I had a little bit of success with some of my posts and also earned interest on my STEEM Power. I have a set dollar amount that I'm going to take out in my mind right now. Then I will stop my power down and let the rest of the time investment ride. I personally never brought in any money from outside Steemit. My time is what I invested and I personally don't feel like I have been compensated properly for my time at this point. But I have a high reputation, some Steem Power, and this platform has a lot of potential.

In summary we don't know where the price is going to go or what is going to happen with all of this. Only time will tell. Good luck with your strategy!