Whales are the celebrities of Steemit..!
Same reason your average layman has a ladyboner for movie stars/actors...
People love to follow and worship things they think are greater than them.
Even in my limited success on steemit I've seen a fanbase and whatnot pop up around me.. With less than 1000 SP folks still seem to treat me "like a whale" and frankly I can't imagine the annoyance of some of the truly big players. I get a solid 25-30 PM's a day spamming me with links..
You look at whales like BerndogSanders or DantheDevelopmentMan and see them under constant barrage of folks spamming them with posts...
I do not envy the whales.
RE: This "Whale-Watching" shit is desperate and needs to STOP!