Just like in the real world, top brands with huge name sells product  with price tags exceeding their quality value and upcoming brands with quality products are barely selling on the market, so it seems to me on the steemit platform.

Posts from whales are earning exceedingly high even though most of their content are poor in value, and high quality posts from the up-comers will go without even earning a dollar.

Why steem reputation is key to earning

Just like in the real world, steem reputation   could be taken for  as a brand name, everyone wants to be assoicated with a big brand even if their product has little value, so it seems on the steemit platform people are more likely to upvote posts from whales just because they have an higher chance of earning more, than actually upvoting quality posts from authors who put more efforts in their writings. 

It seems steem reputation actually controls the platform than quality posts like funny cats videos on YouTube, with more steem reputation  no matter the posts i write i am ensured to earn more than the quality posts written by a  newbie.

Making stemit better 

Everyone has a part to play on steemit, people should upvote posts with actual quality and value than posts from people with high steem reputation but little quality value, then everyone will be encouraged and motivated to write better posts for the benefits of everyone.

These  are just my observations about the platform, feel free to make your own suggestion to make the platform better.