Liniair curve I very much welcome.
10 votes per day I think should not have been implemented. Regardless of the fact the VP can be set to some percentage, eg 25% for 40 votes per day.
Trending page: yep, users like to vote for high value posts. I don't know the reasons, but money attracts money, I think that is one of the reasons, regardless what the results are. Another reason could be that those who are on the trending page are users with high influence and SP and a whole bunch of Steemians are trying to get the attention of the users in the top of the value and influence pyramid. I never analysed the voters but too be honest, I think there is quite a few voting ongoing towards same level and higher up SP users. Too many posts of small SP holders go unnoticed; Too many vote bots on high SP holders posts. I wish bots could be prevented.