Great post! And you know what? You are absolutely right. This weekend I created a post which costs me a lot of time to make. I added some nice pictures to it and I was really happy with the result. Guess what? Not even $0.50.
Someone in the comments was complaining that he did not make any money and I told him my post did not pay out as well. But I don't care so much. The post is there for anyone to see and will stay there. Some people will read it and follow me for it. And that is the way this works.
I build 300+ followers in 2 months. Most of my followers are #newbies because I am very active welcoming new people here. Their votes do not pay out that much, but eventally they will. I Stay active, create some content and don't worry about the payout. It will come eventually.
This right here is the plain truth! I'm happy you've got this understanding early on.