Those were not automated posts, those went through hundreds of posts a day to find five good ones. Then leave a few paragraphs of comments on each of them, then give most of the rewards to the curators that reviewed them.
Plus they were rarely over $30-40, because they are so old and price changes, they look like they are $228, but they were no where near that at the time.
Funny you cherry pick one post that got more rewards than any other one.
I merely performed a search for "buildawhale" and it's literally the FIRST THING in the list.
Sure, but isn't it easy for someone to look at your work from the outside and consider it "low effort" ?
Isn't it easy to overlook the hours of scripting and careful name selection and audience building that made such a post possible in the first place ?