This is honestly a good portion of the reason I don't spend much time on posts on Steemit @dan or have brought over a fairly large following I have built up over the past 8 years on other platforms.
We have seen these socket puppets accounts over shadowing genuine contributors for a very long time and it eventually turns most people away from the platform.
You are in a tough position I must admit in figuring out how to try and control/ fix but still allow things to happen organically without getting involved.
I made a few comments in the past that the main thing that will kill this platform is "greed" by the big whales from the start. I still stand by that. I sure hope people figure this out before its too late.