The majority of whales were successful not because the quality of their posts, but because they were early financial investors in the platform. Some of these whales aren't even active at all short of delegating to bots

Many of the orcas and dolphins also got into the platform early, some may have invested, but not quite in the same volume. They then built their base through early interactions and building out some tools, apps, bots or communities that fueled their success.

These days, I think most successful posters are immediately investing money into the platform and then buying votes through bidbots to promote themselves and build an audience quickly. They then need to be engaging to maintain it.

So, newcomers either settle for crumbs or go buy themselves a bakery.
There seems to be little room for a middle class in the current ecosystem.