This was helpful, and I'm glad to understand better now.
The paying to trend things is, admittedly, very painful to observe. But I'm doing okay these days, so trying to just be content. I'm grateful for what I've got, and no one wants to sound like a whiner, but there is something acutely painful about working long and hard and then watching others fly by because they have the money to do so. But I guess that's also just the world! But I suppose the disappointment comes with thinking Steemit could be different. You make a great case about why it isn't great, but it's better than the worse options. It'll be interesting to see how things develop.
It did occur to me that one way to vastly improve the trending page would be if even a small group of whales would plan to vote together on one authentically great post once or twice a week or something to get it on to the trending page. One trending day would make a biiiig difference to an excellent but undervalued poster, and I think it would serve to increase the morale of everyone on the platform as well as the price of Steem with a better trending page for new/investigating users. Even a couple of authentically great posts from the "little guy" would inspire hope and drive in a lot of people on the platform. It would feel like the possibility of virality really is a thing.
Obviously, I would love for that to happen to me once, but more than that, it really would just be such a good situation for the whole team. Not sure how to get the idea to the right people, but hope it gets there somehow!