I've quite similar impression @yabapmatt
I found it hard to imagine how reducing curation rewards would stop all those users who are using auto-upvote bots from using them.
I'm also afraid, that many stakeholders will not only see value of received tokens dropping, but also APR dropping. Which may prompt them to exit their investments in HIVE tokens.
Wouldn't you think, that perhaps removing non-linear reward curve would reduce auto-upvotes in current form?
Yours, Piotr