not entirely correct... curation is stake based.
when a whale votes - they take the lions share of that curation pool on your post.
so when they upvote themselves - they get 75% and then the majority of that 25% curation too.
change it to 50/50 and its the exact same for whales. this does not halt bad behavior by whales - it gives the same result for them while punishing smaller accounts who cannot compete with the large stake based votes.
i can explain more if you like when i get home? we can continue the discussion :)