Actually not anyone can buy stake, you need to be rich in real life to do that to compete with the likes of some big accounts on here. You can earn stake, sure, but when much of it is often nullified by users like you it makes it a bit more difficult and time consuming process than otherwise... Maybe you don't realize that many people getting rewards on here are struggling in real life, especially in these more difficult times due to lockdowns putting so many out of work, and some people this is their primary means of income, and when an up and coming blogger who normally only makes peanuts gets a first or second bigger payout dinged by big downvote, that would be incredibly demoralizing. I'm used to the downvotes, I deal with it and move on, but not everyone is in a position where they can just invest huge money into a platform they came to seeking alternate ways of making income starting from nothing, just to counter big downvotes. I know people in Africa, South America, Gaza Strip, other impoverished places all utilize it to help pull themselves out of poverty, and you never know when someone's rewards might pay for their family's dinner the next week...

And you can continue to say the 'blockchain' determines reward all you want, despite it only doing so based upon the votes that are cast, as you yourself said above, blockchain votes allocate, before changing your wording to blockchain allocates in later comments. I understand that the only way blockchain determines reward is based on the votes, and downvotes lead to lower rewards, while upvotes lead to bigger rewards. Technically it is the blockchain allocating, but directly based upon the votes that are cast, so don't pretend your votes are not responsible for determining value of someone's payout by nullifying rewards, that is exactly what they are doing or you wouldn't do it to counter what you deem to be 'excessive rewards'.

You sound like Bill Gates would if he were to claim he has no monopoly on power, attempting to convince the people whose government policies (backed by him) have just made jobless and homeless that there's no monopoly, because anyone can be as rich as him. The issue also isn't about your 'right' to downvote, it is over whether this is good for the platform and whether it constitutes abuse. We all accept people can choose how they downvote, I and many others choose to reward content we like and refrain from downvotes, whereas you and some others seem to instead focus bulk of your energy nullifying rewards of content you don't like and using your stake to self-reward via spam comments. To each their own, I'll keep on keeping on and if I eventually tire of the situation, I'll just leave like so many others.

Enjoy being reward policeman of the platform and aiding in stifling the growth of an otherwise thriving platform.