Very good thread Satya, thank you.
Of course I would have to agreed with the opinion of the rest of the affiliate managers here and mostly with David’s.
When I started working in this field (quite a few years back), all affiliates were treated the same, support was not separating “big” from “small” ones as the market was a bit different and more relaxed in most companies (very little competition back then). As competition started growing, affiliate sites started growing as well, some more, others less (by the way, who’s defining a small affiliate? My small affiliate might be a VIP at a competitor’s site and vice versa. It’s not something that you can count and define) and some companies decided to start working with their top/VIP/Super affiliates only so that they could save time, give quick results to their FD’s and concentrate on the short-term impact.
It’s true that you might have 5-10 guys that are bringing the majority of your traffic, however, in your “pile” on the other side I bet there are ‘diamonds’ that you have yet to discover and this will happen in the long term.
There might be affiliates that cannot work out how to download your banners or how to create banner tracks. The “two-way communication” is the key here. Your ‘diamond’ might not be discovered unless both parties (AM’s and affiliates) work together on this. 
I have to add also that apart from some really brilliant friendships I’ve done with affiliates throughout the years, some of my “competition” (other AM’s) are great mates as well! 
Thanks again:hattip: