Thx for your post. Curation for minnows is almost 0.001 So that would not make a difference in my opinion. To have more Then x upvotes on your OWN post would make sense. For comments Its difficult. I am new And have relative small amount. But i had to start in the beginning with commenting.. the problem is How to filter out spam or real comments.
And u think they find work arounds for Some changes. Like creating more accounts..