What is the content rewarder project, or do you mean the comment rewarder project ?
I wouldn't call not voting on anyone who just puts out content intending to sell whatever they earn is a punishment. Hive just needs more incentives right now for users to want to power up and engage as I guess it's too easy for anyone to extract value to do so without putting anything in. I also in most cases don't see the content itself as something that valuable to Hive.
Yes, I did mean commentrewarder. some auto correct nonsense going on with my typing.
In my experience incentives work better than not.