If you've been very active on this chain for all its lifetime, you generally do really well when it comes to earnings, unless, well, you've never really provided much value or made any good connections.
my rewards are not bad but they are very depend on one follower. If he votes my post rewards can be around a dollar. If he doesn't vote my post rewards are only a few pennies. I was a bit sad that my youtube shorts were making more than my book posts or let's plays. Having a few more followers with a big stake would be nice but for now it is what it is. Now when I have over 8k HP my curation rewards are getting more decent. My biggest earners are splinterlands battle post but I can only post them twice a week.
I never had any real problem with downvotes. During my time here I only got a few of those.