This game is so dumb, and there is no reward in exploring. Basically they said that the maximum reward you could get is a star. And now adult founds that there is a way to get those. The optimal way now is to repeat the same step because it is guaranteed that exploring can't be better.
The better thing could be the maximum number of stars aren't revealed and then it could be explore vs exploit scenario.
I don't think you get to choose which block you use -- from the article, it seems that you're given a sequence of blocks, and you have a binary choice of use/don't use for each block in the sequence.
The better thing could be the maximum number of stars aren't revealed and then it could be explore vs exploit scenario.