So you confirm that you didn't have posts getting only a few cents.

I'm involved with minnows too. My stake and my project are boosting hundreds of their posts over a dollar every week. Something that didn't happen before the fork.
That project gives a bunch of curators more influence, and lets them earn some steem on top. Around 5 a day, which still isn't much for the work they do, but obviously quite some more than tipu is willing to share.
Besides that I'm fighting for whales and orcas who got used to vote only for their friends to spread their votes too, and we made some serious progress with that the last days. For those who aren't willing, we return parts of their rewards back to the pool, for the minnows.

Yes, there are whales who don't really help the platform. But you throwing all in one bucket and preaching doom and gloom doesn't help either.