I started in on this platform in January, I did my introductory post, and got 150+up votes, I was stoked out of my mind. Then, I did my second and third posts.... and I got a total of about 3 up votes. There was one post I spent 3+ hours on, and I got a total of 0.00 reward. After awhile, slowly, but surely I started building up my rep, which slows down after 55, and I slowly started getting followers and eventually I started seeing some decent payouts.
I do see what you see all the time, and I do have mixed feelings about it. People with a lot of Steempower only voting for themselves, or voting for other people with a lot of steem power and the money is just getting recycled between them, but for the most part, this site is pretty amazing. What I can suggest is, when starting out, like maybe the first two months, don't spend too much energy on your posts, but with saying that, make sure the content is still at a high standard. Once you pick up a following, that's when I'd suggest spending the hard time on your posts. I found, commenting on other peoples stuff helped me. Leave a comment about what you liked about their posts, and most the time, they will do the same in return.
Also, just remember this is just the begining, the site is still in Beta, and Steem is only around $2. If you plan on holding your steem, you can act as if steem is already $10.. and times all your rewards by 5, and just have it in your mindset that you won't take out a majority of your profit until steem reaches that price. Which, I think in 6-12 month's it will surpass that amount, easily.
Anyways, I enjoyed your posts :)