Yeah that's probably what bothers me the most too, makes it obvious people have prior agreements to "dogpile" SP onto certain posters automatically regardless of quality.

That's definitely the beauty of Steemit, that you don't have to see what you don't like though, lol. I've talked to a lot of people that never look at trending because they see it as stale.

I sometimes use the hot section to see what posts have had a lot of recent activity, but it's a mixed bag; Some are artificially buffed with autobots/ autocuration, and some are more organic.

That's good to not look at it as a career. I think that perspective makes people burn out quickly. Thanks for dropping by and adding your two cents @kevkong!