I used to take part in photography contests when I started, but as I began to get rewarded more, I stopped as i felt that the effort I put in wasn't enough to warrant the rewards from autos. I rarely post what I consider crap content, as I have spent far too long building up a reputation on the platform for being able to deliver quality or useful -and I don't mean the broken rep system numbers :)
I don't know either, but I think it should be up to creator discretion - and audience choice - at least to some degree. the problem is the separation as there is plenty of abuse that flies under the radar