So having an active Steemit account is about adding a little power to our accounts each day through posting and curating, and then benefiting from the compounding nature of the returns on what we are building.

Exactly. Compounding can be very powerful over time.

The Trending page might best just be ignored. Get rich quick scheme might be a bit of a misnomer. The whales and orcas who tend to dominate Trending are already rich. To them, it’s pocket change.

I think that the Steem blockchain has immense long-term potential. Those “paltry” day to day earnings here that some complain about might well compound into life-changing wealth.