I have seen that many quality posts were neglected or undervalued here.
I have to disagree with you on that... I didn't see any Hivian who were posting for that long (6-7 years) + curating/engaging other posts of other authors, to NOT succeed... A combination of both, for that long time, will bring results 100%...
I'm not talking about $100 upvotes, but rather about $5-$10 upvotes... Those $100 upvotes are more a lottery thing or "reserved" upvotes for "privileged people" (which I don't like to see, but it is what it is...)
But, I also agree that some quality posts aren't "visible" enough, but that's OUR fault... We have to reblog and help out them to become more visible...