Very good recommendations. I sometimes say this jokingly, but I think part of the problem is the length of the average post in the hot pages: A 5 page-long post may be good for circlejerking, but your average joe just dipping his toes in to the system is not going to read that, worse, he may feel like a shitpost is not worth posting, reducing his chance to earn power and become part of the community. To me "curating" should also apply to low-quality, funny or plain nonsensical-but-entretaining posts.
And so, I think something that would help alleviate this issue is: More shitposting.
Those are my two satoshis.