Sorry to burst your guy's bubble, but it is a known fact that pay-to-win systems never last,and that is precisely what Steemit is my friends.
Someday soon, only the whales will be left, dispatching their bots, to give their whale buddies some votes, and so on so forth... in an infinite loop.
It's not their fault either, it's just the way the system was built.
That's an interesting opinion.... since I've never purchased a single steem, and now derive more than 50% of my income from blogging and participating here. "Pay to Win?" Not in my experience.
Glad you're making it, but sadly, the great majority of peeps out there are not like you, hence the active user numbers here on Steemit. Plus, you're probably listed on a bunch of bots auto-up-vote lists at this point, hence the fabricated success.