Ah, that explains a lot.
I hope Steemit does make longterm returns on posts somehow - that it's cyclical per content vote count per week per user instead of just content vote count per week for the user one cycle. If that is the case, it would be worth working on a high investment content to then create libraries of data that can support future content - more content, less social virality and networking for sustainable income.
OR, hopefully they add an automatic "Tip" or "Patreon" type system for channels or future content (even after old payout) to particular users/creators.