It's amazing what a rich-get-richer effect products and content that really manage to solve problems in a high quality way get in comments sections around the web. (E.g. 3B1B.)
In some ways, it is a "rich-get-richer" effect. But creators like 3B1B expend a lot of time and resources to do what they do, and the word of mouth he gets is an acknowledgement that the work he does is worth the money and views we provide.
The web has allowed the sharing of high quality content across the world for little to no cost, but has also created so much noise for the average user that they have little to no hope of finding the high quality content on their own. Comment sections across the web fix this problem by promoting producers that offer a superior product. This encourages everyone to make better content.