Great and balanced perspectives and explanation on some of these issues / challenges etc on Steem.

There is no black and white - it's all a grey area. I havent selfvoted for a very long time - but then I also invested quite a bit of my own cash into the platform when I started - so it wouldn't be wrong of me to look for a return (my opinion of course).

I also do autovote among the communities Im in and I know that autovote is reciprocated in some cases. It does in fact make me want to write the best posts I can as I know I wouldn't want my autovotes to be wasted on rubbish. The people I autovote I have already established a relationship with on Steem and I know they write good content and I want to make sure they are rewarded. I regularly check in to make sure that's still the case :) I think in many of the smaller (ie less SP) voting circles ( at least in my experience) that's the way it seems to work.

Downvoting is an interesting one.. I see the value of having it - but I see a lot of abuse of it as people work their own agendas - and you are right - there's no rules against it so it comes down to how people feel ethically about their actions on steemit and we don't all have the same set of ethics / morals / beliefs and then whose to say what is wrong or right? (Deep questions for a Sunday morning lol!)

Thanks again for sharing your perspectives