In June of 2020, I spent one month curating with a Steemit account when I was "between jobs" (I think it was the first month of the program[?]). Even then, it was very time consuming to find enough content to keep the account's voting power below 100% full time. I'm sure it must be an order of magnitude harder now.

I think your team is on the right track with your semi-automated approach. If attackers are augmented by automation (which they are), then defenders must be, too.

From your application post, I had also been hoping they'd let you experiment with downvoting. Overall, I'm not a fan of downvoting, but at present I definitely think it is a "necessary evil".

Check out the top delegations and what they're being used for.

Not sure how I never noticed that. I guess maybe they're leasing SP, too? I have long wondered how they stay afloat for years with no apparent revenue stream.