I am quite new to Steemit. My judgment and conviction about this topic might not be completely correct. Nevertheless, i would like to share with you how I understand the functioning of delivery of upvotes in Steemit. I understand that good content and nice pieces of writing are supposed to be the basis for getting as many upvotes as possible by the community. It is noticeable that those having higher steem power are upvoting mostly those that have more power and from whom they are very likely to get more rewards.
This is rather democratic and it is a matter of choice for everyone. It is very personal. However, it may not have positive effect to the new users who struggle a lot to get the attention of the audience and attract the community in Steemit.
Having said that i will conclude by inviting all of the community users of good will to contribute in supporting the new comers and at the end of the day it will be paid back to those who get so many upvotes in case their followers had more steem power. Finally the cooperation and mutual interest of the entire community is what holds it together. 