Thank you @kenistyles for this interesting post. Yes, there is an issue here. I am helping the Thai community growing and I see that kind of behaviors especially to the ones who have a bigger wallet. As the community grows I communicate that we need them to vote for others and make the pool bigger. But some doesn't want to give up on their practice. They upvote their own content and also every single comment they write. If they reply to comment they give one cent to the comment and they give a few dollars for their own reply. This is very unfair and dirty for others but I see also others now understanding what is happening and start to leave the ones who do that. So may be in the end they will end up alone with only their own upvote. But in Steemit I see it a lot with very large whale it is like a never ending circle with also gang voting. Let see what new version of the platform will bring us. Thank you to put this on the table.