What's the alternative? Abandoning my account and letting my stake just sit there collecting dust?

Well yeah, DUST eh?

Following unwarily just a bunch of popular "Brainless & Blind" trails won't save you to collect just more pure worthless dust specks. };)

So, go ahead and, if anything, sign up and create your own private & personal Trail on Steemauto simply selecting a good chunk of your own most appreciated favorite authors on the steem blockchain.

In this way, if though not totally 'conscious' about what sort of content you are upvoting to collect the alleged real value of your 50% 'curation' rewards in real time. At least subconsciously you'll know what the heck you are 'curating' because it will certainly be much easier for you to pinpoint, follow, read, digest and enjoy in deferred time the content of what you are actually curating. :)