I used to be quite active here. In the many years I have been using Hive, I have only really been downvoted in a big way on one post, one time. It was a large stake holder with which I had a bit of back and forth with about it. We agreed to disagree, but have always been on good terms since.

You don't mention this particular scenario in your post, but it is definitely one that happens. I reposted the same post from years earlier that got something like a 1 cent reward. Then when I became more popular, I reposted it with some updates. The user downvoted it and removed around 80 dollars. I argued that no one saw it the first time. Also I argued that a couple hundred people enjoyed the post, yet one guy with a lot of stake didn't like that it was a repost.

In hindsight I shrug my shoulders and kind of say whatever, but I remember it feeling like Hive would be stuck in a rut forever with this kind of mechanism.

That being said, I don't really have a solution. It is what it is!