I doubt there is any thing wrong with enlisting authors posts and linking to them. It is similar to what was done in this post. It just like saying curators or upvoters shouldn't get 25 percent from payout because they simply upvoted. Curation in itself is a talent and adds value.
I think the rewards on steemit is mostly about adding value and the trails do add value, same as i will not question any author on steemit and measure them solely by the payout on their posts because we don't know what each one does behind the scenes because most of the value on steemit is done behind the scenes.
To understand steemit is very simple really. No one can blame @instructor2121 for spending long periods building a community that is not hidden. that is not an easy job and if everyone can do it, they will go that route but ofcourse that in itself is talent and really hard.
Moreoever, it is impossible to measure this value. Niche-based accounts are very helpful. Yes, they do serve as a hub that people look up to and have incited many authors to posts on niche-topics, there are also many contests, which incite authors to post more, like story ones and literature and art contests and the gaming one like you mentioned; it is not easy to build communities from the scratch.
Months back, there were just a few gaming posts on steemit and the gaming-trail does help. It is not easy to write posts in another language either. I have had many chats with steemians and many find it difficult to compose posts even in their languages and i do see what spanish-trail is doing. No individual can do it, else they would have tried and ofcourse niche-based posts that are trending is good for the search engines.
Yes, it is possible to look at the payouts and transactions but you can't say and we don't know, how many people have joined steemit, solely because they found a community/niche-based post on the home page of steemit.com and decide to join steemit solely because they found their interest.
Yes, if i was from germany, i am more likely to join steemit, if i got on steemit.com and saw a german-trail post compared to if i saw an individual that i don't know, write in german and we all know, the huge amounts on trending posts are there to aid organic marketing for steemit. So i see nothing wrong with trail accounts earning big, as the votes are not stolen and are from people who see the vision of steemtrail and have voluntary added their votes to it on streemian.
Yes, i follow steemtrail on streemian does not mean i have to earn a vote from the trail everytime. I did that voluntary because i believe in the impact of their vision, now more than ever. If anything i commend them because i do it now and it is draining. Since the influx of newbies, i have so many chats daily.
i have a discord server with almost 200 people and you only need to see how disorganized it is and how i tend to particular steemians individually, this is hard and a talent because not everyone has the ability to do it. Yes, many steemians will turn off their chats or block others.
Last time, i was in chat and someone told me his friend needs money raising money for treatment and he needs help to create awareness and i sent a donation and did a post to donate from; this is unseen value that goes on behind the scenes. So i don't see my posts and its payout a measure of the value, i offer to steem because -called value is priceless and if i want to put a price on it, why will i be penalized. It is like Mark Zuckerberg saying Facebook is now 2$ for entry, why should i penalize him, for putting a price on his creation or why should say, booster or randowhale or whaleshares is charging for their votes, i mean, they created a concept and should have the right to say how much they want to take for their genius.
It took me long to understand this things but now i do more than ever and nobody taught me. i am not techy or crypto-novice but i started to look at the steem blockchain more and look away from steemit.com and things become obvious. And people are seeing the same things and we dont know anyone's real intentions but i wont question it either.
You found the posts that were not voted on but there are a ton of posts that have been voted on and i have experienced this many times and especially when it was difficult to earn.
What did i know about steemit, when i first got on here. It was all so rough and i found a home on steemtrail because they vote for me, gave me trail which i still have and answered all my questions and on steemit with all the wars everywhere, it is obvious now more than ever, that people need homes and that is why more communities are suddenly popping up with different designs.
i mean steemtrail have existed since i got here and i really give them credit because it is not easy to run a community, when i got on here, there was steemprentice and steemvenue, steempub etc and they aren't running because the reality is, it is hard, if steemtrail have been here this long, then i do give them credit because they have really put in hardwork and yes, i do believe in the old communities even better than the new ones just coming up because the past, where the hard times of steemit and this steemians that stayed on here like @jacobts etc are the base of the beauty we have now.
Last time, i saw a steemfest dream initiative open to minnows but there was a condition stating that the minnow should have below 500 followers and i laughed inside becasue i know so many veteran steemians who are still minnows and have only amassed more than 500 followers because of how long they have spent here and what did i do, i try to start up the fund of an old steemian and supported him with a case to go contest in the contest because i do believe in the steemians who were here and stayed in the hard times.
Overall, no one can measure value. because we don't know really how much value each one is putting in. I spend 15 hours in chat daily speaking to steemians, this is extreme value. Last person, told me how i inspired him to carry out action in his country advertising steem. I have propelled many people to do charity work in their country and attribute it to steemit.com but you won't know this by looking at my blogpost, so in my opinion, i can't measure value that steemians add to steem, solely/only by their posts and payout and ofcourse, i can never go to people's wallets and monitor their transactions and question them on where their money goes to, because we don't know where it actually goes to and we don't know if it goes back into adding value.
i can never think of asking you where your money goes to or what you do with it because i see you send money to poloniex because i wont even go to look at your wallet.

Ofcourse, you can send money out to poloniex inorder to send it back to steem or reinvest it in some developments or steem meetup that we don't know of.

I will never question the intentions of anyone whether randowhale or booster or minnowsupport or steemtrail or steemvoter etc or the developers who build apps and get percentages because while others where busy only blogging, others where brainstorming and doing sleepless nights that we don't do.

Many things are very obvious, whether it is a comment or upvote or a simple feature, steemians need a encouragement and rewards is not only in the form of upvotes, even the chats in the background that we don't see is value.