I think the concept of downvotes is great. I've recieved many minor downvotes to regulate my extra high payouts, and I do understand it.
Unlike anywhere else, community decides or payouts here, and it is then necessary to have downvotes as a moderation tool. Downvoting does not mean censorship of any kind, all data stay on chain, and are always available. It only means people disagree with the rewards - and it's fine.
Some people downvote selfvoters, some people downvote these who don't participate in the community and milk the rewards only... But that's the right of these people.
I recently downvote the spambots that copypaste old content in a mass scale recently. If there were no downvotes, some of these accounts would succeed in scamming the community and earning few dollars for such stolen content.
RE: Hive Poll: After Meta's free speech move, should Hive also adopt Community Notes, maybe replacing Downvotes?