Project curie for me has been one of the best initiatives yet and I too have benefited from it. I now no longer qualify as per the new guidelines and I have absolutely no problems with that!
The only problem I have is with my desire to help other authors through curation, and I find I hit a wall with the new guidelines. I believe curie should focus more on good content rather than making it complicated for curators like me in finding good content and submitting it for up-votes.
For example, one of the guidelines stipulates that the author should not have had earned a cumulative $30 in the last three posts, but why is curie making the payout a criteria? A good post should be rewarded, and if it not then curie is the hope, but to have the amount earned as a yardstick to qualify for curation, will have it ignored.
What I am saying is that a good post is a good post and should not be judged by the amount the author had earned in his earlier post and be judged on itself only.
I hope you consider my observations positively and do not take it as criticism, as I want this project to succeed and help good authors who can make this a place of great content and good information.