It's funny, an interesting episode, but of course curation, like automated trading, is an arms race. It is a fight for curation rewards, and this algorithmic competition does seem to manifest in weird ways.

Scale is its own challenge, and it seems like you have reached an ironic point where authors don't want your votes.....of course they can't stop you from giving them either!

Good luck with the tough choice, in my personal opinion this is one of the disincentives for being a whale.