This is awesome! I would say that curation rewards does not really do much if you still have small SP. But you could still maximize it by voting after 30 minutes which was also stated in your post so there's no need to explain that further. But like I said, it wouldn't have much impact in your growth. So for me, I would suggest that the best way for newcomers to significantly grow is by posting good quality contents and by that we should encourage them to do so, also like what you have mention in this post, newcomers need to do "lots of engaging comments!" and by that I initiated a contest which promotes steemit engagement. You can visit my page to check it out. In there, I encourage people to engage in the community to build a strong network, and how do I do that? I reward them thru upvotes. I know my upvote isn't that much but I have set a goal of reaching 10k SP this year. I'd be glad if you could throw some support to motivate me. Till then mate :)