This is a hard one :) I certainly get the gamification element as people really like to get rewards - so we want to make sure they see it by allowing them to claim the rewards manually.
On the other hand hand yep, it's tedious but my vote would go to allowing users to auto-claim on the frontend level (wallet.hive.blog).
Alternatively, if we would remove claiming rewards, I would suggest giving the the "rewards received info" text (in the wallet history) different color / style to emphasize that this is something special / cool :)
On the flip side, it sucks to spend 10 hours on a post and then 7 days later claim your 0.001 Hive. It is like an extra, unnecessary slap in the face for new people. Might as well automate a sarcastic memo on the claim that says "Don't spend it all at one place" haha 😆 🤣