Bro, your content is not mediocre, you are being way too humble when you say that.
I think changing it so an early vote goes back to the reward pool is a step in the right direction I suppose, though that's going to be something that probably will take awhile for people to adapt to. Especially for minnows and small dolphins I would say. Wouldn't be surprised to see lots of people posting about it complaining, honestly, lol.
Also, how do you check how many manual votes you've done? I'm not on any voting trails, but I'd be curious to find out how many things I've upvoted on here thus far.
Doubt you can differentiate them. All my votes have been manual but I've had my own trail of people following my votes.
How to be upvoted by you, sir? Thanks for your support to the minnows like me...