I'm not sure you should give up so quickly. Maybe scale back, yes, but keep at it. Those people making lots of money on Steemit are early adopters and celebrities. Money making right now has nothing to do with content. (I'm not saying the whales are putting out bad content, but that an upvote right now isn't content approval, it's a bet, with almost zero risk, that a post will go viral.) It will take time for this site to begin sifting through its resource glut. The only way to be visible at the end of all that is to keep going and have a nice portfolio of work to show once the dust settles. You're doing that - please don't stop!