I'm really enjoying being a part of the manual curation effort @cardboard.
To piggyback a little on some of the things @c0ff33a mentioned. There is the dilemma of trying to balance supporting of low earning content creators, with higher earners, as to maximize the curation reward and ranking.
I've taken to a balancing act of sorts, because I like to empower the small users. If they are ignored, then newsteem doesn't really fix some of the old problems that we had prior. All in all, I think the manual curation efforts are making quite a substantial difference for the better.
And about the self curation thing.. I see it as an interesting "psychological" test if you will.. Maybe a good way to figure out who's motives are true, and will help with the weening process, should you need to can some curators ;)
I hope I make the cut. 🙂