The Illusion I was under, maybe you're under too??

When my mate told me about steemit, he explained it as simple as this...
Steemit is a website which rewards you for producing quality content by people 'upvoting' and commenting on your posts. If people enjoy you and the content you're creating, they can follow your blog which means your followers will see all the new content you create on their wall when they log in. The number of upvotes on each post is what pays you in cryptocurrency called Steem dollars. Half of each payout goes to Steem dollars (cash) and a half to Steem power (voting power).

When he described it like that, I couldn't wait to get on the platform. I was started my account on a Friday night and waited 2 days, checking my emails every 20 minutes to see if my account had been verified.

And on first glance at the platform, it was EXACTLY as he told me. A level playing field where people are getting paid for quality content by people who upvote each their post, commenting and engaging from building a followers base of people who have the same interests or who want to engage with the content that is being produced. And for the most part of my very early look into steemit, that's what it looks like it is. I have people engage with my posts, I get upvoted, I get comments, I reply and I'm happy super happy with my early results on the platform.

My second ever post got an upvote from @surfermarly and an incredible comment which I highly appreciated as it was super early on and I don't even know how it popped up on her wall.

.............................................................However

Lately, I've been doing a whole load of reading etc and been seeing rather a few things that I surely didn't think were true nor would they keep the platform in its wholesome form.

The more I look into the platform the more I see the typical attributes of "people with the most money have the most power" and "money buys votes."

Now I do understand, obviously, the people who have a lot of Steem power are obviously doing something right and therefore are invested in the platform so should have a bigger say in what is quality and what is not... But I think that the whole competitions for money, bidding for votes, and bots (which admittedly I don't FULLY understand) is taking away from the simplistic, beautiful, and supportive community that Steemit is already, but which could become even stronger.

Don't get me wrong I do see that consistency, good content, engagement and building a base of followers is massively rewarded, however, I see other behaviors being equally rewarded.

The more and more I look, the more and more I see this going on and the more and more I wonder if, as Steemit evolves, will one just able to continue to build a following of people who like your content and therefore get a reward from quality content without participating with bots, competitions and buying upvotes??

What does everyone think, I'd really like to know peoples honest opinions about this as its something I've been thinking about massively over the past week.

I'm all for consistency, upvoting, putting energy into this platform, I'm just not for people getting an easier road because of capital, bots, and back door politics.

Let me know what you all think...