watch their tiny rewards evaporate as they hand them over to these whale machines.
Yeah, it's such a scam, to tell people this shit and then they lose money thinking it's the "only way to play" on Steem. "What a trash shithole to be a part of" they must think, no wonder they leave.

believe this was all done by design for this reason

You might be right. They can pump the price up higj by buying a lot of it, then sell it and their bidbot winnings off slowly...

Screw trending is right. I don't know why people obsess over it. Was the same back int he day. I ignored trending as then.