The issue is that "valuable content" = "content that people with steempower like". It doesn't matter if 10,000 people really like a post compared to a few whales. Even though this is total idiocy and obviously NOT an accurate reward for value.
Steemit right now is the only game in town that rewards you at all, but it's not like forking it is hard. A fork that did a more reasonable distribution of rewards would quickly become more popular.