I don't think condemning all curation trails because one or even several users are bad curators is really a fair critique/complaint. There are plenty of trail operators who don't vote on posts like the ones you mentioned.
For example: I am one such operator. I vote 100% manually. No auto-votes, not following any other trail.
You sir are the ideal curator .. I have spent a lot of time watching what the operators upvote and know this to be true. Unfortunately there are operators using Winfrey, which messes things up quite horribly. :)
Yes, the "Winfrey" curation is rather pointless. It's based on a false notion of value for the platform and a complete misunderstanding of economics and economic incentive. It defeats the purpose of trying to identify quality/popular content.