It is getting out of control, I am fairly new to Steemit but it is super difficult to compete.. I see tons of a picture and minimal content at the top.. but tons of way more in depth content being passed over simply because it is hard to find.
I am not 100% educated on the pool reward at this point.. but it is sad to hear that possible rewards for original content writers is being taken by people/bots doing what you illustrated.
The most of these pictures or posts that you see on top, are using bots to upvote their content. Yes I agree that it is a bit difficult at the start, but never loose hope. Keep trying and one day you will be on the top too :)
About the reward pool I can only hope that things change soon as possible :(