"it only netted me around 500 SP from curation rewards in 6-8 months from tens of thousands of votes. "

Thanks for sharing this info - it really seems like curation is a low income activity unless you can accrue A LOT of resources - either from personal investment, or from a serious curation trail.

I do see opportunity there... a very well managed curation trail with excellent transparency, there's probably a lot of room on Steemit for more of those.. hmmmm