You've hit on the things I noticed also. People don't even read the posts the whales put up. They just upvote hoping for a reward. Or resteem when a whale posts something. Hard to get around that with the present system. It really is inbred. Posts about how to succeed in steem seem to be the majority of posts. Almost starts to look like a chain letter. There are so many ways to game this system it may choke out any significant content providers. The potential is there that sub groups would develop and work together in their area of focus. Even fund project they might be working on together. One group is doing that. The Steem Park in Brooklyn. But it seems the only motive for many is just to get some money posting about money. That may not go away and it will just be a financial news and how to make money site eventually.