Since you are in experiment mode, perhaps start letting the auto powered up hive stay, use only the liquid for living expense. The more HP you have the greater your curation rewards will be. I'm just getting to the point that I can vote on some comments and still vote on the content I like.
You have some very good comments to your post, think about what they all said, and remember the choice is yours. I went full in when Hive started, pretty much closed my steem account down and transferred all funds to Hive, that was a huge boon to me. Especially my vote power.
I'm just a mish-mash poster, posting a few things to share, not really a content creator, pretty much just a consumer, but I can be paid to watch, to vote to read. I like that, but I also understand that the more HP I have the greater my consumer rewards are.
I manually vote on everything, and while I may not get as many rewards as some of the trail voters, my votes go on stuff I like, not what someone else likes. I am still amazed that I am almost approaching 14 HIVE a week in curation, a year ago it was not even half that. Let that Hive Power build, if you don't do it go to full on manual voting for things you like, people you like.
Luckily/fortunately I have not sold any Hive in the recent past, and I have also not powered down any amount. I am not planning to power down in the near future either.
I know. I have experienced this on the Steem blockchain, like you.
Yes. I read every suggestion, and try to improve my Hive blockchain experience.
I like that approach. I do mixed (both manual and automatic) voting. I do automatic voting, when I do not have time to manually use the Hive blockchain (for example when I work, or when I sleep).
This is what I am trying to do. It is hard, when most of my posts are earning cents, but lately I saw some improvements.
I wish you all the best.