Hmm? A bit late to the show [6 days] on this one which is a pity as it looks like a debate I could get my teeth into.

Planting my flag in the ground, I'm in favour of downvoting. If I think something is bad or wrong imo then that should be my right to voice that by a negative vote. The problem is a classic Animal Farm issue:
"All voters are created equal!"
"Except some voters are more equal than others."
It is the voting power that's the problem, some downvotes (And up) are worth more than others and therefore hold more influence. I'm not sure how you are going to solve this given the very core of Steemit is to increase your reputation and voting power by earning or Buying your way to the top. Even if you disengage the 'Downvote' from the blockchain mechanism, you would, in theory, emasculate the purpose of it and that purpose, so I believe, is to say what's good and what's bad.

I've always held the view there's no such thing as fair, fair was created by people who fail to achieve and therefore use emotional blackmail to lower the standards so that they too can enjoy the benefits that they have not earned. Having said that I shall now go all hypocritical and say that I'm unhappy with established Youtubers et al. joining steemit, bringing their 10,000 followers with them who then upvote the self-same videos they've cross-posted from Youtube making them Steemit whales overnight!
But there's that word again "fair". :-)