wow @financialcritic my buddy!! we are on the same boat here. Just followed you now and upvoted this very good written post.
You are very correct and I have been advising many minnows the same and you summarised many of my points here.
I started few weeks ago like you too and have 800K + followers due to startegic commenting and posting whenever I feel that my post will add value. See my latest post on steemit where I indicated how it will do great. Thanks and keep steeming.