I did not notice that, I thought maybe a few would try and see what happened especially some of the higher rewarded people going back and self voting during that special 7 day cycle, The first few days i ignored it, but then when my curation went tits up I decided to play with a few votes and had one very excellent curation day of +7 Hive.
I don't think people look at the reward part, well maybe some do, but I think that most on the list just like knowing where they stand. You could go to a 6,5,4,3,2,1,1,1,1,1 reward system for the top 20 and some may lower their efforts, but I doubt many would balk at it. It was and is nice to get a reward every now and then, but it is not the end all reason for posting, commenting, or being part of the system.