The curation aspect is indeed helpful to minnows (I am also a minnows, I have below 5k Steem Power). But it also gives you the illusion that people care about your because you got 50 votes on your post.

The follower system is even worse. I got 1000 followers from SteemFollower but 99.9% don't care about my content at all and never interact with me. So besides a nice number it brings zero effect. You don't want a follower that only follows you to get a follower point in return.