This is reply to smooth reply:

The thing is that voting for things that one likes is like being a nice guy. It's good for everyone but bad for the curator.

If I understand the mechanics correctly we are creating a tragedy of comments, instead of preventing it. It is profitable to abuse the public resource for ones benefit. If that is the goal then it's a good design.

The question is what is the purpose of the curation system? If the purpose is for people to reward content they like, then I think the design works against this purpose.