I'm glad that there is a successful curation method that isn't all about the money magnet effect. I was afraid of curation would lose it's purpose if all the curators go for established authors as it seems. That would prove that curating don't give value on long term. But your method shows that one could earn more with "real" curating, and that's great news!
Commenting your thoughts could mean a lot to authors who feel no one read them and "there are no real people here".
Side info: I've found you at Promotion tab.
Curating y only voting the successful authors was actually my least successful method. Everyone else is doing ths so there is too much traffic already. There is far more quality material out there, so it is good to find these, and as you say, comment and interaction is helpful to the author also. This is the benefit of manual curating.