I think like with most things, people tend to stick with the more widely popular stuff because good reputations are hard to build and those who have built them must have done so with decent enough work ethic and contributions of content. But then it would also be unfair to limit steemit to the long form kind of format and just the people who are established. This is why I try to support as many of the unknowns as possible, especially through their recommendations in my comments sections in my posts.

Anyway, i hope you will stick at it, and i think in the next update to steemit, there will be finer delineation of content which will help you with sorting through things you wish to see, and things you do not :)!