Why are some Kaspa blocks excluded from mining rewards?

Some blocks are excluded from Kaspa mining rewards because they were created too late relative to the network's block schedule. In Kaspa's blockDAG, every block has a "merge set" — the blocks it acknowledges and incorporates. If any chain block marks a block as non-DAA (meaning it arrived outside the expected timing window), that block receives no reward. This keeps the emission schedule predictable: paying late blocks as if they were on time would distort the rate at which new KAS enters circulation. For a beginner, the practical takeaway is that miners are incentivized to stay synchronized with the network, because blocks that fall behind the schedule simply don't pay out.