I mostly agree with your comments here, with the exception that flagging isn't just something that front ends show. Downvotes, which I refer to as flags, are financial impacts. The front ends translate the blockchain data, but the downvotes are blockchain data. I am sure we will agree that financial mechanisms are very often used to censor people, as noted in earlier comments. In addition to direct financial impact, reputation is also impacted, and this is where the front ends most differ in the impact of downvotes.
The thing is that this is a user-owned platform. If rarely but sometimes do flag content that I find really disagreeable. To the extent I have influence here, this is my platform. No one is entitled to any rewards here whatsoever. It is the token holders who control the rewards and they have the right to use their influence to rewards the sort of content they want. Period. It is always possible to buy Hive Power from the free market.
I think the problem of rewards and reputation is to a large part due to the early stage we're in. As time passes, it becomes easier for communities deviating from mainstream opinion to be set up and thrive also in financial terms through second-layer tokenization. Reputation is also one of the parameters front ends are completely free to ignore and replace with one of their own.