In my mind, the better way to view your earnings is that you made $576.81 + $28.05 = $604.86 / 2 = $302.43 per article. You're going to have winners and losers, even targeting the same topic. You had roughly the same number of upvotes and comments, so it's not like there was less interest. It just didn't get whale attention. It happens.
Looking at your articles, I'm a little surprised you're disappointed in how much you've earned. It seems like you're doing quite well to me.
I do agree with your main point though. It's a little crazy how much some posts have earned relative to the quality of the material.
I do agree with this. And I would rather see dozens of posts make tens and hundreds of dollars than any posts make thousands upon thousands.
But -- I think the concern is that once you've made thousands you're always going to make thousands. And the rep score adds to this -- if you post and you have a rep of 8, you're going to have dozens of upvotes before your post is even read.
I take a close look at anyone 6 and up. But maybe I'm biased. ;-)
I do too -- can't lie. But how many great posts by 1's are we missing?
I'd like to see the score once I choose to open a post -- as opposed to when I am browsing the listings.
What you've suggested is known as the framing effect: where people react differently to a particular choice depending on how it's presented.
In this case, I presented a perceived loss because users were being rewarded large bounties while my posts were not so successful. By framing it in terms on my gains, you're suggesting I should be satisfied.
But the point of the article isn't really the rewards I did or didn't receive but the feeling of inconsistency, imbalance and unfairness in the way rewards are awarded.
By reframing you risk ignoring those feelings, or using the re-framing to reconcile the dissonance between what you believe to be true and you see as being true.