While the comparison to reddit is okay, this isn't reddit. Money is actually involved here.

It would be quite easy to argue that specifically ANY monetary return on a social platform is a gain, especially compared to posting on reddit. You made a cent? That's already more than you'd make posting for a decade on reddit.

Also, Reddit is a cesspool of toxicity.

That hasn't been my experience, but I hang out in maybe 5 subreddits. I have specific interests.

Some poor artist sends his money to an upvote bot that he is unaware is a target of this cat. The cat proceeds to downvote this poor (or rich) artist. (Do note that losing an upvote that you paid for is an actual loss).

Some business invests in a particular tool or employee who's supposed to bring a return on investment. The tool breaks or the employee dies/ gets sick. Or a car bomb explodes next door and the building just collapses. It's tough luck. Happens.

Unless you can think of a way of insure upvote bots on Steem, this is a non-issue, as everyone knows the risks involved, especially with the publicity this case is getting.

Now, I'm not going to get started with bidbots, because I don't particularly agree with them.

I think they have their place. Steem is primarily a way of getting revenue for many people, and as long as that doesn't result in spammy, no-substance-no-value posts, I'm all for botting.

What I am against is posting three-four word posts or just a random selfie and boosting that with bots, because it just clogs everyone else's feeds.

Perhaps there should be a special, separate tag for this purpose alone?

I feel that would solve most of this issue.

Instead of flagging what you say is "absolutely flaggable", he's flagging random users.

https://steemit.com/faq.html#What_is_considered_spam_or_abuse

Pretty sure all of this is flaggable, even most of our own posts, and entirely justifiable w/r/t the rules.

That's just how SteemIt is. It's very clear-cut and open to interpretation.

He's a bully, and since you seem to be from reddit, I assume you think bullying is okay.

I don't think bullying is okay, but I do think that it's decentralization combined with giving more power to people who invest more got us into this situation.

I don't really have a solution aside from "embrace the chaos and ride it out", sadly.

And yeah. Best of luck to you too man. Good talk.