It is interesting this thought that 50% should not go to the curators. The min I am getting some reward out of any activity it is a business (how much ever small or indirect it might be) On YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn I have to play with the algo to ensure that my posts are seen. And people have to pay to get those sites to push you hard. That pushing is done by curation here rather than an arbitrary algo. So people focusing on the rewards should think of it as a cost of acquiring more eyeballs which can only make their personal brand grow. Personally I think of it as a return gift - "thank you for visiting my post and making it known, here's a token of appreciation."
I think it used to be 75% to the author, but it got changed. Perhaps curators needed a bigger incentive. There have not been major changes to the algorithm lately. I do okay from curation. It can be about the same as my post rewards, but it's taken years to get to that.