Totally agree wup! All the mistrust has been a simple problem of perspective .. so many with relatively little have been motivated only by one thing .. "get more!" They see that the whales are selective with their upvotes ... some almost exclusive in said selections ;-) .. and this caused wide-spread sin .. the sin of envy.
From the whales perspective - many feel that they do have this added responsibility to police the environment, and reward some over others, but they simply have differing criteria - thus creates this perception of conflict.
Freedom means freedom for those you disagree with - we all have to remind ourselves of that, and also that .. code is law .. if the code does not attempt to stop a certain behavior, then that behavior is by definition acceptable. :-)
There are some interesting dynamics going on for sure. However, I really the driving forces are all trying to get in there and "make SteemIt great and yuuuge.