One a global view you might say that all current users are early adapters.
But if you examine the current situation you will see that the current minnows are actually very late to the party.

The whales have reached a certain point where self-voting can earn them several dollars a day. So their's very little incentives to help the new users.

The new users need to write a lot of content to compensate for this. So the current situation act basically as a piramide scheme: The newbies need to write dozens of articles, earning few pennies. Which makes up for self-voting whales.

You need * a lot* of minnows to vote. To come to a a few pennies. And apparently people aren't prepared to this.

It's easier to be a whale's begger then to earn your place.