It's actually something I'm planning to review.

We are taking out the code that is called out as the linear convergent reward curve. This code has a clear impact on curation rewards for small votes (less curation rewards). I reviewed the associated algorithm changes as far as it impacted curation rewards and was involved in the final algorithm selected.

When I asked about impacts on author rewards, I was told there wasn't any (and there's not as far as authors haven't got extra rewards for early votes since HF14), but I plan to double check that it has no impact on author rewards for small votes. Even if does allow for a little more author reward for small votes, I don't think it's likely to cause any problems, but it's good to know all effects of the change.