In fact, many of us would be so much a happier if we conceived of the blogging and curation awards as a random lottery rather than as "recognizing the value" of our efforts.
What are the odds? Who do we count as whales? Let us be generous and say the top 1000. Potentially, Steemit is looking for 2-4 billion users.
Some will simply never be "rich" on Steemit, and that is okay.