What I find even more important is the openness of the curation for good contributions outside the so-called guidelines (which can be understood as a recommendation, but not necessarily as a condition - I think).

I agree with that part. Personally, I take clubs seriously only. An author should be making significant power ups and not taking everything out. Having said that I don't decide my vote percentage based on a club status. That is solely determined by the quality of a post.

Other rules like word count can also be bent. It depends on a post, some people manage to write a gem piece in few words and some write crap in 1000 words.