I agree with all your points here @jaki01. But changing the system might take years to happen, if it does happen. The resistance will come from people with higher stakes than those in favor. It is still a worthy cause but meanwhile I think the best path to take is the one you mentioned above:
(In some cases I ask the author to write a comment for me to upvote, so I have not to support the curation maximizers by following them.)
This could be the best course of action because you won't be adding to the rewards of the early voters and you can take your time in curating posts that you really like. And although you will be going over the 5 minute rule, at least the bigger share of the rewards go to the author and not the bots.
This is as far as my understanding of the matter goes. I'm no expert at these matters but upvoting the comment instead of the main post is a good palliative for the moment that things cannot yet change.
Yes, I will do that even more often in future.