It is a bit much... and the fact that we still keep giving regardless of the consequences is testament to the fact that it is the gift that is the primary motivator. After all, if it was pure immediate ROI (like bid bots and circle votes) then everyone would have jumped ship immediately...
Still, it is the ability to downvote without any responsibility that is really not a scalable thing... if it gets out of hand, then a few good accounts might step in... but that is not the sort of thing that you should build a network around!