Disagreement on rewards is a very new addition to this list and it's a bullshit excuse to manipulate the platform. I still believe that this platform tanked because of this type of attempt to control and dole out rewards equitably. Vote for what you like, then mind your own damn business.
Before the list even existed, it was done at the blockchain level and there was no 'reason' needed. It has always been the case that users can flag/downvote for whatever reasons they want.
I realize this. There are no rules forbidding it, but it's a bullshit reason to use that power against a contributor.
It's largely a matter of opinion. I tend to agree with you (at least as far as how I personally vote) but a lot of users see certain high paying posts as taking rewards away from other contributors that they feel are adding more value.
Basically a ton of people feel the same way, a lot left the platform feeling lost or unappreciated -- some before they really had the chance to get established and many days, I still feel like this after working hard on something and getting no views, votes, engagement --- and earning 30¢ and seeing some of what trends here daily.
If the same select people and problems continue on this way, they will only have themselves, -- the top 50 whales and authors and someone will go build the next Steemit and fix what has been broken on here.
Then they should drum up support for those posts they believe in, the votes would equal out the rewards, but this is just the exact same thing as whale stacking for rewards, but in reverse. It's utter bullshit and as a contributor I know when my rewards dried up, the minute everyone started talking about "sharing the wealth" instead of voting for content they liked.
I can appreciate that you are expressing your concerns so well, even with the occational too harsh for my taste expression.
The way I see it the downvote as such is not going away. I could probably give you my own argument for why it's likely a necessary part of the platform, but neither did you ask nor am I the best to speak of it.
However since the downvote will remain, I think it will always be used by powerful users for the very reason we're discussing here. That's why I suggest adjusting the total impact especially that single whale votes has on single accounts, but more than anything a separation between the regular downvote and the flag.
Come to think of it, in a sense it's actually similar to the idea of a separation of church and state.
I think of it like fiscal policy