To simplify understanding, the payouts on steemit.com now represent the payouts to be received for just a single post and its currators. If you see a post with a $10,000 payout then you know the following:
$5000 is being paid to curators
$2500 is being paid to author
$2500 is being paid to parent/grandparent/etc (if any) otherwise the author.
Posts are still sorted / ranked by cumulative payout.
Is there a feature in the making telling us how much is pending in potential earnings? Or would that be too complicated?
I think it would be too complicated. Well we have https://steemd.com/@cryptoctopus :D