Currently, the "downvote" is a flag. There is no point getting into semantics as to what situations it should be used and what situations it should be left alone. It is an integral part of the voting system and people are entitled to use their power as they see fit.
When a system fails because everybody acts naturally and within the boundaries of the protocol of the system, then the system needs to be tweaked such that people can continue to act naturally without having to consider whether it is culturally accepted.
In the same way, whales can come together to collude and centralise their voting power, they can also choose to withhold their influence and make everyone else's influence have more weight. Of course, it makes less structural sense because if the goal was to reduce the influence of whale voting power, then it negates :
a) the point of having large SP
b) any reason for stake weighted voting
Of course, the ideal situation is such that actors can act in such a way that aligns their personal interests along with the interests of the platform. Should an actor be allowed to act in such a way that benefits the platform but at the expense or detriment of themselves then it is again a failure of the system and thus some rework is required.
I support all manners of experiments in the vain of the end goal of creating a system that makes more natural sense to all participants.
I've never seen such a long comment written by you :)