That shit is the reality indeed,
Being new in the community we are all rushing towards follower rather than engagement and this is the same thought i had when people were like f2f in the groups n channel, i knew having more subscribers doesn't mean visibility but just a fuckin +1 in the follow count n not in the views.
One more thing that has been come into practice is to tag all the fucking follower in every post you make n i have been getting some of these notifications which is really annoying n which leads to unfollow instead.
We need to understand its not about getting but giving, Giving a post that audience would love , Giving some great advice to newbies ( like you did here ).
And about whales i believe some of them are really generous n willing to lend a hand to newbies by endorsing a give away and shit
@instructor1234 is top in my list :P
Success or no success but the Journey any side will be hell of a ride .
I can't find it, but there's a post about giving a gift or joke to your audience instead of trying to take soemthing from them. That little tweak changed everything. I'm sorry I dont' remember the video, but the message of tweak your approach from service to self to service to others and watch how the world changes.
Good times!