Maybe downvotes were good if the came from the community. But they come from a few guys with the most power.
Maybe steem was supposed to work like this. But it is not like a lot of people want it to work. This is not social-media but antisocial-media.
If there is one guy able to decide about all other peoples revenues there are much better options than steemit.
I also do not like that damn voting-bots but maybe it needs fundamental technical solution for optimization not a few guys playing sheriff.