I hope it works. I hope something works!
Thanks for the @tokenfaucet reminder... it's one of those that briefly slid across my radar, and then vanished into the mists again.
I try to reward good comments, as well, but it's tricky for those who like having engagement on their posts, but lack sufficient HP to upvote a few comments above the dust threshold without burning through all their voting power.
Gamification of the whole social sphere does seem to have an impact. Asher's Curation and Engagement Leagues sometimes generated as much as 6-8% of all Hive curation activity during a given week... and people were very loyal to it, to the point where it became a subcommunity within the community.