There was a good amount of influence lost by the whales. The more SP held, the more the disparity was...and the vast majority of total SP was held by whales. (not making a statement of right/wrong here..just what it is.)

Now, if curation rewards end up staying the same or increasing, it shouldn't directly impact their pocketbook unless they made most their money by upvoting their own stuff.

Personally, I'm excited for more people to have more influence. Not only to give them excitement, but also to give a better chance for more categories to be built up since there are more people to give $ to their own areas of interest.

However, there are some down sides, like the motivation to self vote everything. Posts I totally understand...good comments sure...every comment...eh..maybe. But that's solely my take, not trying to tell others what to do...especially when it's not abuse in my eyes.