It can be hard to figure out what is acceptable on Steem. There are no global rules and what counts as abuse is a matter of opinion. I only downvote to remove unearned rewards and that includes paid votes. There is a finite reward pool and I want to see the community decide where that goes. Not that I have a massive influence. Most of us are not against promoting posts by buying votes if you do decline rewards as that is pretty much what you do on other platforms. A lot of the vote sellers switched to manual curation as they still earn well from it and it makes Steem look better.
I do not want to drive good people away as we really need them. With just a few thousand active users Steem will be seen as insignificant in social media. We need pioneers who will take a risk on it. For now we need to consolidate the user base and put out content that is seen to have value.
I hope you can find ways to make it work for you.
Yes, I have figured that out for sure. I guess the "decentralization", although has benefits does have draw backs, like "mob mentalities". But then again, it is all about the community I guess and what the acceptable social norms are.
Appreciate the thought. Was just really frustrated yesterday. See my reply to @slobberchops on another thread under this post as to why. I know that from now on I plan to start researching and asking questions if there is even a thought of something offending the overall community sensibilities.