A downvote for me would wipe out my whole post lol - I guess I need to grow a pair if I want to have say!!
There are parts of the social system an individual is given liberty to choose their battles. When I can't be open and express disagreement on anyone, that's when I know I have treated them as above me. The social rewards on the posts are nice things to have but you don't need them as you can earn just fine with curating content or increasing your stake and delegating passively. I'd like to think decentralization means everyone exercising their freedom of speech and etc but then when these social rewards are tied to the consequences of not being able to earn anything, that says volumes that it's really about the rewards rather than the free speech.
I hadn't thought of it like they were above me but now you mention that I suppose that's true to a certain extent... I have always been a peacekeeper and don't like to cause conflict which limits what I say of my own beliefs :)