i too follow the same logic. Now that the steem price has erupted it's a bit easier for everyone to earn something. As you say to back there not only your posts and mine and mostly everyone's paid out a couple of pennies because we had no follower but cause of the low price too.
We were in the verge of death in some way, the only thing that kept us both (and i say both cause i completely relate with your logic as i mentioned above) is that the community was great, we find slowly people to interact to and like their contents and even if we earn a couple of pennies, we earned something instead on facebook and instagram were our payouts where 0 ( and if we add the time we wasted we are minus)
What i do and will keep on doing and i suggest anyone to at least give it a go is basically not to beg for votes, just post things you like whatever that is and find other people that you deem worthy and interact with them by commenting and if you wanna go a step further then use that chat-rooms too.
At the end of the end a normal human being here on steemit above everything wants someone to read his post and receive some criticism for it either good or bad ( everything helps). Begging not only make the person you beg to, consider you as a 0 and maybe flag you but the other people who check out the post and see that kind of reaction will blacklist you too so instead of asking for upvotes try to earn some (the feeling will be better i can guarantee )
sorry for the long answer i tend to type a lot when commenting :P
yes there definitely have been quite a few terrific people I've come across on STEEMIT as well, definitely makes it feel all the more worth it, when going through the inevitable ups and downs along the way! :)