I'm just taking the "wait and see" stance for now.
As for voting and curating, I do like the idea that I will be able to (technically speaking) give 4x more weight to a truly exceptional piece of content... but I think I will be using the slider a lot more than before... probably casting a lot of 20-50% votes for more "average" content. And if the newest members actually get to see their votes move the counter, that has to be good for morale, right?
The effect on new folks is definitely a good thing. It's interesting that in the original Steemit white paper, the notion of tipping was seen as having too high a cognitive overhead, so that people distribute their funds less. But now we have a voting percentage bar, where we don't even know the exact amount at any specific time. But experimentation is one of the interesting things about Steemit, and a good thing.
The post HF19 environment definitely invites us to become good at "resource management," as far as using our voting power goes... and yes, experimentation is important there.
Of course, newcomers don't get a slider till they have... what? 500SP? So they may run out of gas pretty fast, unless they understand that their ability to upvote is limited...
Some of the other apps have a slider right away. But newcomers probably won't know about those apps, either. I can see the newcomer mob mentality working on the trending page - big time. But as people understand Steemit better, I'd hope for more balanced outcomes. I hope it doesn't make us all more stingy with our votes, however we distribute them.
I think having the newest members see that their votes count for something will invigorate them. It will be interesting to see how they use their votes!