I want to vote for something when I see it, not try to remember to go back 1/2 hour later.

Exactly and this where the reverse auction perversely incentivises bot use.

I do get a bit jealous (It's my own choice) by those who just pick the obvious authors to gain the most rewards, and it seems as though that is compounding the problem.

It is easy to do that and also when you want to earn curation rewards using a bot you have to do it based on past success.

I wish I had some solutions, but people are going to chase rewards, and I don't blame them a bit.

Yes very true.