I think this happens to all of us at some point once you see the growth on your account slowly starting to tick over. When I first started out I had no clue what the Curation HP awards really were as I never seemed to see any. I thought they were a waste of time not realising back then stake would change that thinking.
Curation has to be considered the most important part of HIVE as it helps others grow and without it there is not much happening. I think my "AHA" moment happened when I saw my vote value increasing in value and thus making curation a true earning potential besides posting rewards.
Looking at the breakdown curation rewards on my account is now responsible for 25% of the total account growth. Rewards from posting are never guaranteed like curation is and can see this figure becoming more and more important and possibly will at some point be responsible for 50% of the account total value. This may seem ridiculous considering I never had any rewards registering any value from curation for a high percentage of the time I have been on Hive. Only in the last 2 years has that changed and the change to 50% author/50% curator in rewards breakdown definitely helped change that.
This is why HIVE is always evolving through development and seeing how to improve things is important. No one knew at the time even though many bitched that the thinking was you would lose out. Back then it was a 75% to the author and 25% for curation so you can understand why curation growth has definitely benefitted which is healthy.
Earning by voting on a particular author or post you enjoy is one of the features on HIVE that makes this place so magical. Where else do you get paid for liking something and also help by handing out support at the same time.
You can find this on hivestats.io and definitely worth monitoring it's growth.
I do believe and have said this before that the vote value is the real wealth on HIVE besides the stake. Being able to reward others with a vote that may hold some real $$$ value is powerful as this could help change peoples lives for the better. When I say vote value I am not referring to the dollar value but more the HIVE value. When HIVE increases in value this will become more obvious and why paying attention to this vital stat in your account value is that important. I must admit this I only started to monitor about 1 year ago and each month seeing it increase by 0.1 HIVE still tells me I am on the right track and validates the effort.
I am sure if you have not experienced an "AHA" moment on HIVE the you are at some point going to see the light and the growth potential all falls into place.