I think 'flat curation' is worth a shot - seems a long time ago that you first mentioned this.
Auto-voting trails, especially those following solid curation projects, could be seen in a different light, with those trailing getting a 'fair' share no matter their place in the queue.
Yes! I've talked about delegation to curation communities but curation voting-trails would work equally as well under flat curation.
It may even be better, since you could switch voting-trails instantly rather than waiting for your delegation to be returned.