I love @curie and the contribution to the Steem platform cannot be understated. The problem with many of the communities I have seen is the complexity in joining and having to pay some kind of fee doesn't end up paying for itself. Qurator is a great example of the more money you give them, the better weighted upvote you will get. For the lower tiers, the vote doesn't really do much at all. In comparison a @curie upvote is like winning the lottery, especially if you're used to making cents or a couple of dollars per post.
Perhaps the greatest discovery I made recently is the beautiful @illuminati-inc (partnered with @curie) which rewards music focused content. An album review I wrote a few days ago got a nice upvote and a $17.87 payout. And before that, another music review I wrote earned $24 in payouts. It's these @curie votes that keep me going, because it feels so damn good to break the $2 mark, let alone $20+. Perhaps even more impressively was a post I wrote sharing a story from my childhood and earning $67 in payouts thanks to @curie yet again.
It's a shame I am not much of a comedian, because the #comedyopenmic tag gets a lot of love these days thanks to the generous efforts of curation groups and whales.
Words cannot express how grateful I am for every @curie or @illuminati-inc upvote I have received lately, it motivates me to post more content and better myself every time. If that's not contributing to the community, I don't know what is.