Brain fart. Yes, I knew that half was paid out in SBD and half was SP. I didn't know why the SP amount wasn't .5. It's because that part is based on the current price of Steem. You're getting $0.50 worth of Steem.
The cool thing is that you still get 0.50 SBD which at today's rates is actually 1+ Steem if you exchange it. That is why it doesn't make sense to have "powered up" articles right now.
yes... exactly... and why it also makes sense to use the services like @bumper @earthnation-bot and @lila-wish-genie... they guarantee a return of your money by being 3x or higher which means after curation you will get your SBD back, plus extra steem and sbd for your effort... the only issue that can hurt you is if STEEM and SBD drop a lot in a short period (but since that is what you want for the long haul its something to cheer).
I had a couple of bad days a few days ago, but it really got good the 3 days after that.
I fill my limit of 3 x 0.50 on bumper every day
0.20 on lila-wish-genie
0.05 on earthnation-bot
all are no brainers to me