That's true, though the statistics prove that engagement and views are rising quickly. So definitely there are more consumers incoming. The cool thing is consumers can be paid too with curation rewards.
This is still a nascent platform. I'm optimistic that the platform will mature over time.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but in order to be paid any significant amount for curation, you'd have to create content first or buy a ton of Steem.
I don't think a consumer wants to be paid. I think he just wants to reward the content that he likes, preferably in a significant way. And right now, it seems to me like a consumers vote is worth almost nothing.
That's correct, the amount of curation rewards depends on your Steem Power holding. But it also depends on your work ethic, skill and understanding of the rewards system. For example, I make more in curation rewards with 50,000 SP than most whales with 1 million SP. When I was a minnow, I still made pretty decent rewards. The key is to find undiscovered posts and try to get the word out about them. Voting on trending posts is a sure fire way to never succeed at curation rewards.