Follow me on the Hive machanism and a logical conclusion:
Hive is not designed for pacifism. It has an additional mana renewal specifically for downvotes.
Some users never exercise their downvote power due to pacifist beliefs. However, when this ability is inherent and others utilize it, the pacifists are losing in the game.
When someone downvotes posts you voted for, they also damages your curation rewards.
Since the reward pool is limited, it's a zero-sum game. The downvoters wield more power, which we, the 'pussies' who refrain from harming others (as I did before realizing this), do not. Thus, the Hive system gradually increases the share of the pie for these downvoters at the expense of live-and-let-live users.
Smart users should not only vote but also retaliate with downvotes when their friends are downvoted to protect their curation rewards.
It's a lamentable reality, and I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts on this.