Is it not a choice we make, with regard to engaging our followers, building relationships? Sure - I only have a handful of followers who regularly engage and vice versa, and it is those comments/upvotes I value most.
Where people do not use Steemit regularly - (Streemian) trails are an acceptable choice, if they want to make most of their otherwise unused voting power, but in general, that doesn't lead to building a value followship.
I have, however, myself created a Curation-trail today. An announcement post will follow.
It's for a specific group of people and I hope that many will make use of the trail. More later....
Valid and timely concerns though. We should only ever give our votes to follow someone who we know and trust.
PS:// There are four accounts which I give an autovote, because I value their submission/mission. But I always check the votes and their content every other day, in case I missed them. So, it's helping but not replacing the manual curation/engagement.
Sure - if there is whalepower not used because the account holder has little time, a delegation with profit share or curation trail would be a valid choice in my view.
-ch