In your case, you know what you're doing. You're controlling not only what to reward the author but also the curation reward you earn for your upvote.

Many people, mostly new Hivers but not necessarily, are just going on autopilot and in the process cheating themselves of earnings. It's leaving money on the table, and in the case of new Hivers trying to get themselves established it's taking longer than necessary to pass the dust threshold.