The time of day when you post has been shown to matter... a lot... as another example. It's part of the luck.
If all the other things are being done (expert at something people want to know more about, good writer, etc.), you still need a decent amount of followers too.
Pennies add up. I've seen people who couldn't write well at all and that didn't have much expertise still do well by marketing themselves. When they do that, they end up with 5K followers. Those small upvotes add up.
I don't recommend people depend on finding whales to support them. Work on marketing, your expertise, and your writing ability instead. If a whale supports you, that's a wonderful thing indeed. Just don't depend on them. That's a recipe for disaster.