"This platform makes it easy to begin producing content that could potentially pay off."

Potentially is really the important word in that sentence. It is not impossible to start earning money on the first day but that is far from the norm.

"This isn't rocket science and if more of you out there did it, then actually voted for each other instead of wasting your votes on trending posts, your chances of finding success would be much higher."

I would agree with that. I stopped trying to chase curation rewards and started just voting on things that I like (which was the probably the idea to begin with). To me, giving someone with good content the penny (I think I might actually be able to give two now so hurrah) is more "rewarding" than the little curation reward that I might get off of voting on on a trending post.

I think you are right about putting things into perspective. Even someone who is struggling is really progressing much faster and more freely than they would elsewhere. I could read my rants and weird opinions to a camera on YouTube and no one would ever care. Here I might make a dollar or two worth of Steem for my effort.