Couple of Questions Concerning Curation

Howdy Steemit. Think I've got the hang of most of the basics, but still a little confused about curation mechanics ...

According to the FAQ:

• If a post is upvoted the moment of posting, 100% of the curation reward goes to the author.
• At 3 minutes, 90% goes to the author and 10% to the curator.
• At 15 minutes it's a 50/50 split.
• At 27 minutes, 10% goes to the author and 90% to the curator.
• If a post is upvoted 30 min after posting, 100% of the curation reward goes to the curator.

I would have assumed that early bird curators, quick to the quality content curation party, would receive a greater portion of the curation rewards ... but the opposite seems to be true. Can anyone explain the logic behind this? Is this structure designed to discourage people from camping on new and up-voting anything with potential as soon as it drops?

Also, what happens >= 31 minutes? Do you still receive curation rewards at/after that point? I didn't think you would, but I swear I've been receiving rewards for posts I didn't vote on til much later.

If one of you Steemit extraordinaires could answer these questions, that would be cool AF.

Thanks in advance.

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20% of the rewards from this post split with @centerlink for the communal benefit of #TeamAustralia