Generally, I've found that lots of upvotes on HIVE usually come from the communities which I am involved in, aka part of.
I guess in this sense, it is similar to web2 too. People tend to read things from other people within their own social circle. That's how it is with facebook, insta, tiktok, and what not isn't it? We have our friends which we follow, and thus consume their content.
Upvotes seem (to me) to be a validation of friends who've said "Hey I've seen your latest content. Not bad."
So that's how I see it. Of course, once in awhile, I do consume content from outside my community too, that's like when something goes viral just like in social media, or another person in reblogs and it catches my eye.
Long story short, HIVE is alot more similar to the web2 social sites than some would care to admit.