Just look at the top 50 witness list, they get all the votes, most people don't even know there are more than 50 witnesses.

I just checked and i have 14 witness upvoted in the top 50 and 7 in the rest... but it's basically because i haven't seen other witnesses that much on steemit, i know you are a witness and that flauwy is thinking about being one, but i don't know about others... They should get more exposure!!

But to be honest, i think that as long as you and other non-top20 witness break even at the end of the month, or even make some money it's worth, passive income is always good! Even if that passive income is only a couple of bucks, remember, 1 STEEM now might be 2bucks but maybe in the future, 1 STEEM can be 100 bucks!!