I don't think 5% is stingy, it is what you choose to use. You are one of the people that has a tendency to reward comments and you get a lot of them, and you always seem to manage to keep your vote above a dust level.
There are several people who's content I enjoy, so in order to maximize my vote I generally vote at the 25% level, this allows me more reach, but it is generally on post not comments. As I continue to grow my account I will continue to branch my voting out, not to maximize the return value but to maximize giving people a reason to continue using and posting on Hive.
Your small accident may be the one that keeps a new user trying to get more involved in learning about and using Hive.