Flag wars would have been the whales crushing bad curation, but really, until the free downvotes were a thing it would have been an all day endeavor for them that cost them their own curation rewards.
Back then you had to downvote with your upvote mana.

The n2 is best explained in that link: @miniature-tiger/an-illustrated-guide-to-curation-from-the-simple-to-the-complex-with-real-examples-from-past-posts-part-1

A minnow could vote on the right post at the right time and >100x their curation rewards.
Those were heady times for the small fry.
Of course, those 1 and 2 hive they made because their hp wasn't all that was just too much for the greedy power mongers.
They needed it all to 'stay ahead of the inflation', and 'maintain their percentage of the whole', never to be diluted.
So, folks got ran off in pursuit of those goals.
It's pretty obvious we have never recovered from that policy.
That reputation continues to precede us in the market place.

Those accounts have mostly either dumped and left or have gone radio silent, don't hear much from them since the fork.

I would love to get interviewed on HIVE over text.

It's a talk show, @shadowspub runs it, but if you join the conversation in the text chat folks will notice and join in.
Those over the fear of speaking up.

You'd think after coming onto 6 years more folks would have noticed that the speech control freaks have mostly left the building, but nope.

I couldn't really say if those still getting gang curation would feel any different, I haven't been playing this game for the money from the start, so I never got gang curation.
'Too controversial' was the excuse.