Here is something for you to think about:
I have been around steem (now hive) for something like 3-4 years.
Most of my stake came from doint translations for @utopian-io, but on the way, i wrote about a lot of stuff i like to write, and always engaged when the topic of a post was interesting for me.
I didn't created an obsession about receiving upvotes. Sure, it is amazing, and i was always happy to receive them.
But after some time, i stopped "chasing" whales and curation projects, and all the bullshit "tips" about "growing your account" here.
Why? Because 98% of those with influence(mostly big) around here don't really care about the community, or helping anyone else grow, despite the public declarations about how they want to help.
Why am i so sure?
Because i tried. I commented, connected, talked with a lot of people on discord (specially the big ones), tried to push interesting content related to STEEM/HIVE, reached out to those that i thought could find my topics interesting (no, i didn't begged for votes) and guess what happened these 98% of the time? I got ignored by the same people that make huge posts about how you must "engage" with the "community".
There is very few who gave me attention, "even if it was only to say that they did't had the time to talk", but most of them just.... ignored, like i was some kind of second class citizen that wasn't worthy of their attention.
(A special shootout to @lukestokes, @themarkymark and @crimsonclad. They are the ones that i could feel they were truly paying attention when i talked with them about something.)
You want a reason whey most of the people don't stick around? Because of the hypocrisy.
There is a huge gap between what most (not all) preach and what they actually do.
"Engage", they say.
But interesting enough, they don't seem to be willing to engage back (unless they are somehow getting a direct benefit from it).
I think it does depend on the individual, some just aren't so chatty. I must admit, if I had a stack load of HP I would likely post less and engage less.
I've always thought that new/smaller accounts, looking to grow their account via content should be the ones making the most effort, and so when I see it's the account in middle range doing it (and putting out contests to try to encourage below), I'm a bit concerned.
The issue isn't about how big the stake is.
The problem is the discrepancy between what they say and what they do.
And this kind of action have a very short-time effect.
They do what they are asked to do for some time, but as soon as people realized they aren't getting the same respect back, off they go.
At some point in the past, as their accounts grew their ego bloated with it, and they started to think they are way too important to deal with 'peasants'.
I'm not sure how big the accounts are you are talking about, but there's no chance a whale is going to spend all day commentating like some of us do.
The harsh reality is that they don't need to make friends, but at least they are hear with HP and hopefully trying to grow the network this way.
Another shoutout to @crimsonclad, she's the epic metal lady :D
She remembered me after I took a year break. Really touching <333