Yeah there are many curators that have tried "best of" lists with varying success. I think the incentives are always messy on these posts.
I think what you are describing is fairly possible. Im interested in second tier moderation like this, but building a way to do it communally with community moderators. Again things like this arent in the SMT whitepaper, but its possible this will be much easier with future network upgrades. Otherwise it has to be built.