I can see why people could get frustrated with the payout distribution. It is very easy for posts to slip through the cracks, but I do think it is trending for the better. Every day I see more and posts with reasonable payouts before I even get a chance to read them. It seems that the successful authors of yesterday are becoming the patrons of the authors of today. In my opinion this is great to see and suggests we are moving towards a more healthy curation effort. The tough question is how to keep people satisfied while this evolution occurs.