Curators actually do get paid and can make $13-14 an hour but they are usually called moderators. So there are people getting paid and people do moderate all sorts of sites. That moderation service could be considered a professional curation which is why certain Twitter accounts get pulled. In other cases in appropriate ads get pulled when they get tested so curation of social media does pay in the hundreds of dollars a month range but no one is living rich doing it.
On the other hand content producers are really ripped off. Content producers get around $20 for 1000 words for articles well written. People write books and don't make as much as some people get from a single post on Steemit so I would say for content producers Steemit will be fantastic. At the same time you need a wide range of curators for a diverse type of content so I don't think you can not pay curators and it's not fair to expect anyone to do anything for free and that includes curation.
The problem right now is there isn't a lot of diverse Steem content so the value of curation is limited when it's the same demographic appealing only to it's own sensibilities. When it's a bunch of crypto nerds and very limited diversity among the content producers then of course you're going to see everyone voting for the same few people early on. I think given enough time and maybe curation could become something interesting but it's too soon right now to know.
Where exactly can people get $20 per thousand words? It's more like two or three dollars. Check out Demand Media for how they've been squeezing their writers in the last decade.
Trust me there are places if you know where to look and how to get in on it. The last thing I'll do it tell Steem where the competition is so people can leave Steem.