You're right in that quality posting is truly in the mind of the reader. That is part of what makes the upvoting system work. I tend to worry little about what the whales are doing or not doing.
I upvote on a piece I believe has a message and is well written. I have to admit a bias though. If I have to wade through huge paragraphs, it takes an extremely well written piece to hold my attention long enough to decide to vote.
I try to find at least two new writers to follow every day and then start my day off reading and voting on my feed.
You have a good strategy on how to find new content. GJ!
The whales are at work, more balanced now with the vote weight/scale implemented.
It's true that for a post to be of good quality(=successful) it needs to be marketed properly, starting with the title and then with the first paragraphs. Long posts that I think are worth reading after checking the first paragraphs I send them to my kindle with a nifty little Chrome extension. Then I really enjoy them in traditional reading.