I agree with you about maxing curation and jerking the reward pool, not to mention how these posts look to outsiders/newcomers, and I suspect this is mainly about making money (for most participants) under HF21 newsteem rules. I personally don't know what the math says about it.
But I have to say that xpilar and friends are actually doing much good on the blockchain, for example helping Mission Agua Possible and other very worthy causes that are struggling to make progress. So it's certainly not all black and white but a more complex gray area.