Thanks for considering that things may not be all that great for those on the bottom. I can certainly see why beginners can get easily frustrated after trying to figure this all out for a few months and not seeing much progress, while others seem to get away with seemingly unthoughtout posts and can Upvote themselves to the stratosphere while the relative newbies are struggling for pennies, literally.
It seems that there is a growing amount of self voting, and those examples tell newbies that must be what you do here to try to get ahead.
I have to admit, although I don't like it I have found that the best way for me to get votes is vote for myself like I am seeing more others do.
I don't like begging or whining, but also am not very tech savvy and trying to learn what philosophy to actually follow on Steemit turns out to be quite a challenge. (sounds too much like whining so I's better wrap it up).
Looking at the curation piece is well worth a shot I would think in my uninformed opinion. But maybe the whole self upvoting should be reconsidered as well?

Thanks for the info.