First, it is not a gimmick. It is a powerful feature of the Hive blockchain.
Second, only those who put HBD in Savings will receive the interests. Doesn't matter how much is in your savings, everybody gets 12% or whatever the APR is at the time.
Third, to receive payments there must be some actions by the account like a transfer to trigger a claim of the interest payments. So it is possible you wouldn't receive these payments for months, then you make a small transfer and receive the payment for all the months you are entitled to but haven't claimed yet.
I hope this explains that there are no imbalances here. Everybody has the equal opportunity to take advantage of this feature or not. It's matter of individual investment/financial decisions.
RE: HBD Interest Payouts For February 2022