Wow! Imagine my surprise when I saw next to the article some amount of money. Like there was already some sort of reward? For what? From whom? How does this work? What sorcery is this?

Haha, that's the same way I went down the Hive (formerly Steem) rabbit hole. Can't believe I'm still around. I appreciate Hive a lot more now with all the ridiculous deplatforming happening lately.