Awesome responses you have been fed with my friend. Wanna add something...
REP is also important because it draws people to click your posts. Certain people on Steemit believe that posts from high rep accounts are of high quality in content. And when more people click your posts and read what you have got, your chances if getting up votes also increases. And the more up votes you get, the more money you make. So you can see that there's hidden relationship between rep and earning potential. Thanks
Thanks.