I’m not a fan of the downvoting. It causes more friction than it’s worth. A person on the receiving end of a downvote will inevitability harbour ill-will, regardless of the intention behind it.

A big problem is that I usually don't know the intention for flags, because the flagger does not have to give a reason at all. You said that some will harbour ill-will regardless of the intention. In reality, I would rather know the intention, even if I think it's a lousy one, than to not know why I was flagged.

I am a very understanding and flexible person, but you can't understand what you have zero information about.

I think that if someone is going to flag they should have the courage to say why. But since most people don't seem to have the courage, the system should have it built in that a reason must be provided before a flag is applied.

So if I get a flag I don't know if it's because my topic is controversial, they don't like me, or they think I earned too much. Assuming that they think it earned too much, why do they think that? I have no clue? So if they choose the reason that payment is too high, they should add some further reasons that they think so. Was it very poor quality? (in their opinion) Should the topic I talk about never get to trending because you don't like that topic? ??
(p.s. I was flagged recently by transisto after getting to trending for my first time ever in over half a year)

Anyways, I'm not sweating it anymore and I've just decided that Steemit is the Wild West where anything goes and no reason is needed and I'm taking my chances. That has made me more content.
But if things could change that would be nice.