I think curation reward does not matter much because one can not get much curation reward if his SP is low. Users having great SP can earn handsome curation reward. Hence, SP matters a lot. That's why minnows should understand that rushing towards trending posts cannot benefit them. Instead of it they should help each other and make each other successful.
You can see the posts of @jga (links are available in his comment) in which he made clear how the system of curation reward works.