That means that ONE piece can make income for a long time.

I am pretty sure that through SMTs there will be the ability to create evergreen earners. This should in itself change the type of content some people produce as it can have value for years.

Passive income is being built (curation rewards) just a couple more decimal points over and it will mean a whole lot more than a hobby on a blockchain.

Yep, it could be passive. But imagine what activating it could do globally.