I really don't understand how you decide what to downvote...
I've had a couple posts this week that got way bigger than normal payouts (newsflash votes), and very little conversation or anything...
Then yesterday's post gets more interaction than anything I've posted in months (and most things on trending), is less than half the payouts of those others, and you give it a downvote that removes more than 50% of the payout :-/
If I happen to see something and think its overpaid I will downvote (also plagiarism or such but that's not the case with yours to my knowledge). I'm not a fully time curator so don't expect consistency. I miss a lot.
The engagement he's talking about was actually people engaging with a comment I left there... Just sayin'
Your post didn't get engagement (very little, like usual). The TWO WORDS I left there in the form of a question is what got engagement. My post, under your post, is what people were talking about. That engagement exists because of the conversation I started. You can't take credit for that.