I don't think that's an issue, it's just like in the real world, we have more rich people and less rich ones. We just have to deserve the respect of those whales. If they invested their own money in the platform, they are free to do what they like. Some people here are having more than 1 million steem power, imagine that, it's more than $1 million, will they give it for free just to random people ? No, of course, we have to deserve their upvotes, we have to prove that we provide value to the community of steem.
Talking about that 80% or more, it can be not used not just because some whales are not upvoting, but it can be not used because they are not online, or just something happen to them. I've seen a lot of accounts that can give very big and good upvotes, but they are not active at all, is that mean that we have to complain and think about them ? No, of course, we have just to keep being active everyday and try to reach to those who are active.