It makes the top trending more competitive since you need to spend less disposable income to top it.

Not really 'spend', just (in most cases) lay it out for a week until you get it back. That's a bit of an obstacle, but a tiny one. On the other hand, if downvotes kick in more often (granted, this is uncertain), then you are taking a real risk of not getting it back, which is hardly the case today. So this means people will be less willing to buy votes, not more willing.

Curie does what curie does. That doesn't mean that all forms of curation will have to take that shape in order to be different from blind vote selling. I can think of at least a few other ways that move away from blind vote selling and don't have curie's cost structure.

Anyway, yes, nice chatting.