I get the frustration Bernie, i do :) And i hope you have a wonderful Christmas as well. We need people like you (the good whales), to go around finding the actual good content. This post for example, it got over 400 bucks. I know a ton of people, myself included, that puts in hours of work into every single post, yet we are lucky to come above a dollar (luckily, this has happened to me more than once, and for that i am very grateful).
My latest post is actually about this very topic, i hope it's okay i mentioned you in it. Because the point you make is very true. Too much hard work goes unseen, while a few people can spend minutes on a post and make hundreds of dollars.
Anyway, check it out if you want to, i only wrote it because i want steemit to become an even greater place.
I hope you all had/ have an amazing Christmas :)