Decreasing curation rewards won't harm my enjoyment of a piece of writing - if I really do enjoy it, I enjoy it, I shouldn't need a reward to enjoy content, the content itself should suffice as the enjoyment.
If we have established that content creators create not to extract value (but some do) - and automated voting is an issue - then perhaps a downvote on some content may be justified as not the content being bad, but the other curators being bad? :) Its a complex place. And a thought experiment I haven't had before.
Regarding the notion of archive: It is deletable, if all the nodes vanish - but the block log is stored in many different places. But it isn't stored in all places. Decentralisation for it could be better, a lot of the nodes are concentrated within Privex infrastructure.
I write for me as well, but as part of my growth as a writer, a photographer, and a human being, I cannot help but be influenced by the information I discover, I read, and the conversation that I have with others. It broadens my horizon.
Sure, might be in your case, but that doesn't change the fact that interaction in posts decreases rapidly two days after publication because a big majority of potential curators simply doesn't care anymore then.
I also noticed that for example a post that haven't been hit by a trail within the first two days won't be discovered anymore during the days 3 to 7.
I personally don't care about when I upvote a post but the majority does.
But fact is also that (unfortunately!?) nearly all curators and a big majority of authors care about their rewards. Let's face it that for many HIVE users the expectation to earn some money is the main reason for being here (and I actually think it is a valid reason among others).
Not only then. Also when the latest in roughly 1 billion years if the Sun will make life on Earth unbearable, long before it turns into a red giant and potentially destroys Earth entirely, the probability is rather high that then also my content will get lost forever. ;-)
I read about that in a book in primary school. I still remember standing in the library, holding that book. It has only recently been a notion of mine that this, too, will happen to all the stars in the Universe, so there's no escape from loss and decay as we know it.
But, if we still get enjoyment from something, we should enjoy it even more knowing that it too, will one day be gone.
Perhaps we need a sorter on a front end, that works similar to ebay's "ending soonest" so people can nuke "unused" voting power on posts they would have otherwise missed, or to discover content that would perhaps have gone overlooked due to the time it was posted, or other factors.
I know there's not as much reward for a curator there, but perhaps it may see someone go, "well, that incentives me to do even better on my next one!"
(And conversely, people could also use to adjust rewards down prior to payout)