My voting power generally stays below 50, with really good days getting to the mid-50s. You can only spread it so much and still have any impact at all. It's because I follow SteemTrail plus I curate a lot of stuff personally. I wish my votes meant more for payouts, but they are what they are.
SteemTrail tries to make a difference. And we're confident that it's helping a lot of people. Folks volunteer their time to try to make that difference. Do some vote as favors sometimes? Of course. In fact, I propose that we all do once in a while.
But, another side of it is that none of us owe anybody else a vote. Yeah, we'd like to see it become more equitable across the board. This includes many of the whales. But, as long as humans are involved, it simply won't be.
And I can sympathize with the low payouts. I stopped in the middle of an intense series for that very reason, among other things. The work is too intense for such low payouts. So I'm focused on other things to try to make things better.
Personally, I don't see this as a Steemicide post. It's a well reasoned concern about the disbalance that's occurring. As discouraging and frustrating as it could be, I just don't think there's any room for finger pointing. As some users have pointed out, it's their vote and nobody has a right to it.
I hope you stick around. You're a blessing to the Steemit community.