For a moment forget the small guy who is just starting, and imagine the rich guy who is exploiting. He upvotes his exploit and downvotes everyone else thereby doubling his power. The small guy is even more screwed than when he had to face a return proposal, particularly when more than one rich guy is pulling the same shenanigans.

A return proposal is not an ideal solution to the small guy's predicament, but it is a solution to keep things moving without doubling the risk of centralization.