We are taking out the code that is called out as the linear convergent reward curve
Is the code change setting the reward curve back to linear or something else?
If it's the former then again it will become more profitable to mine/extract value via comments. Although this would not be the same situation as before (when comment farming was rampant) due to the "free" downvotes. I predict it will be an issue.
The immediate impact of the change will be to increase the curation ROI for the bigger accounts and viceversa. Essentially front-running wont be a "thing" anymore.
Rewards will be strictly linear with total rshares.
I'm not particularly worried about comment farming. Not only can downvotes be employed to counter that, such accounts can also be added to popular mute lists that will likely be subscribed to by "newbies" who might potentially vote on such spam comments.
Yes, the larger impact will be that it ends the use of bots to front run for curation rewards, putting manual voters back on an even footing with the bots.