Dumb but Critical Question Regarding the Quality Article Discovery Process from a Steemit Newbie ...

Dear Steemians,

I'm still quite new to steemit and I'm still discovering the platform. However there is one thing that has drawn my attention: The frequent use of promotion services (voting, resteeming, power delegation) to push articles. There's extensive advertising for such services via microtransactions and as far as I can tell, most articles in the "Trending" or "Hot" section seem to be promoted in one way or another.

These articles get the most attention. But when I read these articles, some of them are good, some are average (obviously based on my opinion). Compared to many other good articles I find when browsing via tags or through user's blogs these highly successful articles are rarely significantly better. This is not what I would expect from a quality-focused content discovery process.

So my question is: Is(n't) the ability to promote articles via paid voting etc. hurting the platform, because it distorts the impartial discovery of good content?

I would be really happy to read your opinion on the matter, especially if you're one of the more veteran users who used this platform since the beginning.