There is a big difference between whales and dolphins. Whales for the most part are individuals who were part of the group who started the entire Steem blockchain project and then Steemit. Dolphins for the most part are individuals who began blogging on the platform when it came out and either made it through perseverance, delegation, buying in or otherwise.

Whales typically follow and vote for users who are participating in something to do with their projects or the projects they're supporting. Dolphins typically vote on their own posts and of those of collaborating accounts, particularly now that VP must be carefully managed.

All of that aside, due to the amount of spam we have on Steemit it is nearly impossible to find quality content. From reading the comments in this thread I've found several great accounts to follow. Otherwise, I wouldn't have seen them. This is exactly why some users and witnesses (like ourselves) are taking it upon themselves to clean up the tags and remove spam.

In short, even if a whale or dolphin or my grandma or anyone else wanted to vote on quality content by new users, they'd have a hell of a hard time finding it. This is the prime reason every Steemit guide advises to give it time. Finding a diamond in a shit pile doesn't happen at first glance.