really worries me that they don't really seem to be able to do much.
Whether they are technically capable or just don't give a fuck is what comes to mind first.
They can allow every scumbag in if they want, the fact is that they are giving those people steem and in that regard, you own them, monitor the accounts efficiently and get rid of those idiots sooner. I like the no flagging from the start, as much as they wish to scream self-governance and no censorship they need to wake up and have the system protect itself.
Users are guilty until proven innocent not the other way around and by that logic, new users should run the gauntlet and there should be a mechanism in place that isolates them from the rest once any account has been found with malicious intent towards the other accounts and thereby steem itself it needs to be shut down. This is a failure of the system to protect itself and not censorship if it were to protect itself.
I don't want to think that it's that they don't give a fuck, that would just be tragic. They might as well completely hand the whole thing over to the community.
There's definitely something that can be done, I refuse to put too much thought into because at the end of the day I'm not the one sat on millions of dollars worth of Steem, Steemit Inc. are.
Unfortunately, I agree with you. It's not a pleasant situation, but I think new users should have to prove themselves before getting access to certain features like flagging like you say. I think you summed it up perfectly;