You are a great example of how someone can grow, in both account and influence, without having to be "in the team". Similar to how I grew in the early days on Steemit.

Really, the economy is linear so that nobody has any privileged voting position - indeed, a small account can grow much more quickly than a whale, assuming the post votes are much higher than the user can self-generate.

In compensation, when you have time to reblurt the best posts you curate, then at least they will get some votes.

My advice to newbs remains the same - post about what you know, local stuff - and don't beg, nobody likes whiny beggars. lol.