Causing content to be rankeddisappear according to one whale’s preferences doesn’t match the preferences of all the readers the content has been hidden from. The entire point is to match the preferences of users based on the expression of their past voting patterns, so that votes from like-minded people impact the rankings for like-minded people.

Fool yourself with false power if you wish. No incentive was removed. It only increased the incentive. Observe.

The market will move to what provides the most relevant and organic matching of preferences. Social networking is about diversity, not overlords. Their days are numbered.