Your reconstruction of intent from my words is putting you in a very different place from where I am.
Curation - I provided the definition above because you seem to be focused on the collection part of curation. There is more to it than that. You cannot 'curate' these samples on Earth because they don't exist on earth.
Value - I'm using this term in the sense of 'what would someone pay for these'? I'm using it much the same way that art is valued or classic cars are valued for auction, not the internal mysteries of motivation or the commoditized value of a good like cold rolled steel or corn. In this case, like art, the provenance, authenticity and care of the instance is generally considered essential and therefore why the 'curation' does actually have a meaningful role in the value (at least by virtue of not destroying it along the way).
If curation did not add value, the market would not demand it, and soon enough the curators would realize their business is not profitable and stop doing it. Curation happening consistently and over a long period of time is a sign that it does add value.
Curation, being a labor process, does not add value to anything.