I agree with you that without friendships and audience engagement a person can never make it big no matter how good that their content is.
However, I do believe that quality content is something that makes Steemit better than Facebook.
Should every user strive to put out quality content? I think so.
It doesn't have to be a Masterpiece but it definitely does need to be something that at the very least has a tiny bit of effort into it.
My 2 cents.