It's just how the curation rewards are designed. If a minnow votes on a post that no one else will vote, they will get no reward. If a minnow votes on a post that many larger accounts are voting on, they stand to gain something. So, if a whale chooses to reward an author consistently - which is absolutely fair - minnows, dolphins and even smaller whales see the pattern and front run the whales to cash in on curation rewards. Over time, these accounts get infested by hundreds of bots, and are basically a guarantee for the Trending post.

I don't blame anyone here - it's just that the curation rewards system does not achieve it's goal of "curation", rather disincentives it. Why vote on a good lost post (actual curation) when you can save your voting power and cash in on a post that you know is going to trend?