"If true, the issue I have with this, is that algorithmic curating could lead to algorithmic content creating, with people tailoring their creativity to feed the bots."

Exactly right. I've seen this happen twice before on other sites that I wrote for, several years ago, that no longer exist today because once everyone learned the process, the sites became nothing but link spam. I think its important for Dan and the other whales to make sure that this does not happen.

Creating bots for curation rewards seems to me to be the exact opposite of seeking value-generating, "quality content." We're already seeing how whale votes and bots are creating and skewing "trending" content. I'd really hate to see what happens when most users start posting simply to attract bots for rewards because their original - actual quality - content has been consistently ignored or buried by actual low quality content. Assuming that such users even stick around for that kind of potential atrocity.