You are exactly right. Steemit is no different than the external system because it is designed as a hierarchy. As with all hierarchical systems, there is a period of time when certain people can rise to the top and those people are self-satisfied with the way things are as they have gained favor. Others do not gain favor and are controversial. The flagging mechanism is analagous to gun ownership. If only the cops have guns, they can kill people and people have no defense - hence in your case 57 people upvoted you and one person whipped out his gun and killed you and you have nothing to say about it. Yup. But the masses are fine with it as it is, so it probably won't change. The same thing happened to me a long time ago - a whale did not like an article I wrote that had been well-liked by many - and was up to $200+ (that was back in 2016, when posts were worth a lot more)- the whale flagged it and it was gone.
One thing you can do is re-enter your post in @whatamidoing 's Dead Post Contest -