I share a lot of your thoughts on this. At times, as a new user, it feels somewhat futile to put a lot of time and energy into writing or creating what I think is a high quality post, knowing that it'll likely get limited upvotes or traction while others bring in hundreds of dollars. However, I try to put a positive spin on it -- since I don't have a long history here or a large amount of Steem power, I like to think that most of the upvotes I do get are because people actually liked my work, which feels pretty good. Also, I've found many of the more experienced users are quite encouraging, which makes a big difference as I don't feel like I'm competing against them, but rather, like all Steemians are on the same team.