Automation isn't that bad if used properly.
I'm still doing full manual curation but I'm well aware of how inefficient is that. However, there's a chance here for some middle ground: https://steemit.com/wise/@lukestokes/sneak-peak-wise-vote-an-interview-with-noisy
Kudos for the full-manual curation, great to see that this works out also with higher stakes!
Wise is a very interesting project for finer-grained voting controls. I haven't heard much about this project lately, but it's certainly worth a more detailed look.