This is exactly what I don't like about Steemit. These people always vote for themselves and their best friends or whatever relationship they have and don't care about others. We, minnows, have @curie (and other similar curators) only to help us grow while these people are still filling their pockets with money and when someone shows up his disapproval, they will, of course, avenge. As if your 5$ made a difference in their reward ...

Every newcomer, who is at least a little worthwhile, is sweating blood here and trying to write the best posts he can and what he gets? Nothing. And then there are people with 60+ reputation whose upvote has enormous value and every one of their shitpost has a payout large as fuck meanwhile nobody reads our good posts... But of course, there are also some exceptions, who do something for the community :)

And I fully agree with your moral standard. Mine is the same. I don't upvote my comments. I hate it when someone does. And about greed... I think that this comment speaks for itself.