The way it sounded to me was you can still be downvoted by someone outside the community and lose your steem but you won't lose your community token unless of course the community downvotes you then you are at a total loss...unless that is, if I am understanding this right, your community is run by the APPIC app then your steem is untouchable BUT then it would come by way of APPIC giving it to you once they take their cut as that's how APPIC works currently. APPIC's token is a worthless token, which, according to their FB page is a SMT...so a worthless SMT. They never did take off on Dan's new blockchain as an equivalent of Instagram done blockchain style so now they've been allowed to come here as an app.
At least to this point is my understanding of it.

If you don't join a community you'll be dead as a fish left floating in a puddle once the river has subsided back within it's border and the puddle dries up. Of course there's a last minute chance upon saving yourself if you have the resources available to buy more steem and start your own community, outside that you'll have to wave the surrender flag and join a community whereas if that community isn't rich enough to support another tribal member you'll more than likely be asked to contribute your fair share of power to enable the tribe to buy more steem for RC's. They've tried just about everything else to force people to buy steem...the dead fish in the field seems like their last viable option.