I'm kinda half/half on the reward curve. On one hand the curve is exactly what makes self-votes spread over tons of comments and posts makes not lucrative anymore. On the other hand it makes it more difficult for smaller authors.
Maybe on the long term we have to adjust the exact dollar value of this curve accordingly to get the best out of both worlds.

Similarly with SMT, I think the best way to take care of this is doing it organically and not forced. After introducing SMTs certain communities will start paying out in SMTs and find use cases and sinks to establish a value. After a certain time then these SMTs could slowly take over and Steem distribution can be reduced.

I do not think that a hard cut would be good, especially seeing the already low author activity.