As the average user, I hope not to see a cut in curation reward but perhaps there is another way to mitigate the situation. First, I would like to say the last change in curation had me a little concerned but I think it did eliminate a lot of issues and made the platform better and fair curation practices did emerge from the shadows so I don't want to judge the idea too harshly.

I have no problems with auto-votes although I have never cast an auto-vote and do everything manual. It is my observation tho that at the 3 minute mark, all the auto-votes pile in where as a manual curator, I refuse to vote before the 4 min mark. I know the window is 5 but by then the post is pretty much at it's full payout value or close for many. With that being said, before making drastic changes to the curation returns, perhaps exploring the idea of making auto-votes wait the 5 minute window giving a chance to manual curators to actually discover the content.

I don't write much but I always curate with it being my main source of ROI. increasing the inflation pool in my perspective would just reward large holders much like the 3 min auto-vote already does instead of giving fair chance to active users that are also important to the growth of the platform as a whole which is what you should also be trying to improve as well. Many active users become investors in time. I understand you want more investors but the platform is meant to be a social tool as well, not too many will invest in a declining platform. The potential solution you suggest my impact negatively on both sides of the equation...I could be wrong, it's just my perspective. I just hope before you consider drastic changes that maybe we find a solution to get our beautiful little community closer to our goals. It's not perfect but it's still better than it ever was a few years back.

As for large holders voting on the same people all the time, may or may not be an issue if done responsibly. As most of us have been here 3 years+, relationships are formed, it's not always about the content, perhaps some have great relationships behind the scene and want to support such relationships made over the years that is also the point of social media, BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS with our peers, it's just human nature to gravitate towards positive engagement with others thru the years. Not everyone valuable is a great writer and is part of the equation some often forget.