Honestly, I didn't know any of these details. As a minnow you never worry about how curation works, because you think "Oh, my VP is so weak it will not benefit me regardless of how I use it" but actually it's a good strategy to upvote potential posts that are very likely to receive big upvotes (quality content). Also if someone is a bot bider, you can also benefit from that before they buy it, lol.

Personally I give my upvotes either to Minnow's quality content or contests that require it, that way my "worthless" upvotes become WORTH.

On the other hand I have a question. Is it true that if someone's rep is higher than yours you don't get any curation rewards from their posts?
I've been told this, and I'm wondering if it's true or not.