You are reward ESTM points from Delegation + Hive. What I question is that you can use ESTM to exchange for Upvotes which is another way of paying for Upvotes.
So I struggle to see the difference in paying for upvoting with delegation or with points exchanged for me that 2 things are the same.
Now with ESTM, you are not on an automatic whitelist and you can't assume you will get an upvote with by using ESTM. You can try and if the Ecency team redeem your post good enough, they will allow it and this is the biggest difference I think
When you spell out the difference like that it's a fairly significant one, we're in full agreement.
Ecency is my choice front end, I've seen them mentioned one other time now when a vote sharing account is in question and I can't help but do this because I, personally, earn ESTM and think they're good for the Blockchain. Points allow me to increase vote value of content I appreciate by adding much as $1.60 (last time I checked) which is nearly double my vote strength.
Ye it is :D
Ecency also uses the RC for creating accounts for new users therefor helping with onboarding which has always been problem for Hive, that another way to add value here ^^ :D