Yes that is an option but you need to have your curation game on point for that to make sense.
At the very least, you have to make enough curation APR as you are paying to lease to break even. At 9.5% APR that is very very hard. If you make less than that you will end up with less hive than if you just have powered up.
So I would rather power up.
since hbd price increased a tinsy bit, maybe you should use your savings then. should double your power...
I mean they are savings for a reason... (I'll use them in a computer upgrade, just waiting on the new CPU generation.)
I am making some money by trading Hive and I will power up using some of those.