I think that as long as some people earn more than average earnings for posts that are indeed average and rarely above, then others will get annoyed. The current downvotes thing might help but obviously causes resentment

 I usually encourage people not to look at trending posts and what other people are earning and focus on their own blog and helping others but it is human nature to look at other peoples stuff with shiny eyes.

I don't have any solutions but I liked your post and I think that we all need to be reasonable, rational and yes, be able to laugh at ourselves :0)