One percent of the earnings seen in my wallet have come to me by way of curation rewards. It's not much, but as I climb by creating content, I'm earning the ability to pay back those who have voted for me by voting for their content. New users today also benefit from those of us who have stuck it out trying to make something of this.
There's an incentive in existence that helped push me to succeed. I know the more I put in, the more I'll get out. I viewed my ability to earn higher curation rewards down the road as a way to make up for low creation rewards at the start. A time investment(like any other investment) that finds a way to balance itself out. Without that, should I power down? I'd like to be able to help people with strong voting power. Without curation rewards in the future, it'll take me even longer to get there. They talk about this mountain being steep...now I'm facing a wall.