Manual upvoting is probably the best way to do things
100% 🙂
With the manual, all this on Hive is raised to a higher level, a closer relationship between the author and the curator, the author knows that the one who voted for him really follows him. But again, it's a matter of time, and have the same for Hive.
It's better to have a trail than to have HP sitting on your account and doing nothing?
It is a matter of time, and it can take some time... I remember when I began my HIVE journey, I was lucky to be plugged into a community that was supporting each other... Unfortunately, it fell apart, so in some way, I had to build from the zero... But, it was a good lesson as I was in the "bubble" in that community, without noticing that I wasn't growing the account, but rather stagnating...
I do follow a few curation trails with my account, but I set it up to vote only if my voting mana is over 98%, which happens very, very rarely... Maybe only if I'm sick, or without the Internet for a long time (that didn't happen for years 😃)... As I'm manually curating, my voting mana is almost always between 85-96%...