I never voted for your posts, because to be honest, I was not 100% sure whether your intention are clear, or it is just way to earn money.
By declining your payout you have just proven that your intentions are good, and you are really doing this because of authors and their content :)
I think, that probably your payout is well deserved, but at the same time currently declining payout i think is better for steem as good PR move for steemit.
This makes no difference w.r.t PR for Steemit. A new/existing low-rep/low-SP author telling their friends that they are making money/getting recognition because they are getting voted by some curation guild on Steemit (where you earn by way of upvotes) is a good PR. Because when this curation guild pauses it's voting, the effects are immediately visible because unfortunately no one is able to replicate success. I've also seen how people are unwilling to come together to crowdfund (on a large scale) other methods of reaching the same conclusion. Declining payouts limits Curie's reach in some ways. Perhaps the model will evolve to sustain it self in other ways but I'm of the personal opinion that the community must come forward to support activities which in turn supports the community at large. The community at large are generally small stakeholders/new users. :)