Congratulations on your two years anniversary @steevc.
It's certainly is very different nowadays form what you and others have described.
It's taken me seven and a half months, posting four times most days to reach 1000 Steem Power with no powering down! 😱
And I think it's even harder now than it was when I joined.
It is harder to get noticed, which is why some people may take the shortcut of buying votes. I think the long slog pays off better in the long run as you get mmore genuine followers. I realise that most of my followers are inactive or don't actually look at my posts. It's just a number.
I hope you're right @steevc. Only time will tell. 😊