I've had the exact same results with curation and also share the same feelings.

Of course, it's nice to have piece recognized, but it aint the be all and end all of success on Medium.

The only good thing I can see from curation is, as you meantioned, your work seems to be put in front of readers for longer and there will be days when an old piece spikes and recieves more views/reads/claps than usual.

Apart from that the only thing to do is keep on writing and honing your craft.

Thanks for sharing this piece, great read 😊.