This is good stuff Asher thanks for sharing. i honestly had no idea that 16 minutes and a little over gave the best curation rewards. Despite the fact that i have been here for like 4-5 months i still have a hard time understanding even how my reputation number increases and its significance.
Yes it's an increasing scale up to 30 mins when it is fixed at 100%.
Reputation is not involved in the calculation.
Cheers!