Many other changes were made besides just the reduction of the curation pool to 25% instead of 50%. The worst change IMO was going to a pure linear relationship between SP and vote strength. It partially solved the issue of small holders feeling like they had no effect on post rewards but opened up pandoras box for vote buying to become the most profitable use of stake.
The answer to your question is neither was better. Both what we used to have and what we have now suck for their own reasons. Figuring out the way forward (which is what kevin is trying to do here) to a better solution is needed. We have plenty of examples from the past of what doesn't work. Lets learn from it.
Youve now mentioned two problems: curation and reward curve. 50% and n^1.3 has been proposed. Yet everyone prefects to sit back and not do anything about a system that's had proven before any reasonable doubt to be a shitfest.
I'm not in favor of doing nothing. Id like to see us try to change things, and iterate more frequently until we arrive at an actual workable economic situation. The status quo is broken.