I think surviving on steemit isn't exactly impossible. It is just quite hard because the community has grown a lot with a number of users, so it will take a while for one to get noticed. That being said, I believe the newbies also have to take steps into being noticed (aside from putting up nice and engaging content) by engaging in other people's post by dropping comments on other people's post and joining other communities that help towards growth. So, in my opinion, growth on steemit isn't impossible, it just needs a little bit of work.