I had to read the first part to get all the information at once. Being a curator requires a lot of calculation I must say. You have to curate and still find a way to maintain balance.

One thing I've noticed about some curators is that, on days when they have exceeded their set limit and they still come across posts that they'd like to upvote, they use other means like tipu curate, dbuzz rewards, or ecency points. It helps with maintaining their balance.