This is how Steem was for a long time though, when downvotes cost and were rarely used. Did you see what resulted in that? Bid bots selling votes to whoever bought them, buyers posting content no matter the quality cause they knew they'd get ROI from the bid bots or friends that would vote them. Accounts that would just farm the rewards and SBD on a select few accounts with backroom deals to give back some of the post rewards cause they got the vote in the first place, etc.

We need some regulation and we need to normalize downvotes and that very same emotional thinking you mentioned needs to go away. I get it that it's not the same as on Youtube or Reddit when you get downvoted, even though it may hurt there too here it's squared cause there are pending post rewards in the mix and it feels like you are stealing rewards from them.

We just need to use downvotes well and be able to accept them well. Obviously I get that feeling over me saying "go nuke his active post rewards" but we need to realize that that is not the answer. If my posts get downvoted from random users that disagree with the rewards that's okay, unfortunately lately most of the time the only downvotes I've received have been from people with ulterior motives, grudges or as in this case retaliation and I'm not okay with those.

I do hope communities will change things a bit more and bring some balance into it.