Yea, that "little fish" problem is my biggest complaint with STEEM at the moment. If you're not already an established "high-earning poster", whales will miss your post among all the noise and good posts just get buried. People with track records of high-earning posts are the ones that are immediately picked up by whales/bots (oftentimes regardless of the post's actual value), so they're the only ones able to really get time in the spotlight. It's a self-promoting cycle that really only benefits those that are already whales.