Dropping curation rewards by 75% would definitely change the balance. A lot of the votes I get are automatic. Some are from people I know, but I expect many are as you describe and just fishing for curation rewards. It would be better for people to follow trusted curation trails to get rewards where they are earned. Most of my voting is manual (apart from trailing @tenkminnows) and it is aimed at getting rewards where they do the most good. Even some of my friends cannot expect a big vote from me if they already get plenty.

Something needs to change or it will turn into a big 'circle jerk' (horrible term) and that may devalue HIVE further. People need to give a shit about the platform. If it can be seen that quality matters then we stand a chance of recruiting good creators and eventually going viral. We have to be honest about the fact that we are tiny and the highest earning people may not be that great at attracting new users.

Those who just treat it as an income stream are likely to go elsewhere if their return rate plummets. Then it's a question of whether the remaining community can prosper.