Down-voting STEALS people's earnings.

Not exactly.
Without downvoting keeping the bots in check the platform would have been farmed and dumped into oblivion years ago.
Flagging content for abuse is a necessary duty of stakeholders.
Without it folks would just make two word posts, dump their rewards, and nobody would buy or hold.
It shouldn't be hard to imagine what the price does in that situation.

You have no reason to fear the flaggots.
If you join the conversations in the discords you will see that random nuking of accounts doesn't just happen in a vacuum.
Most of the people getting zeroed have a history most people aren't aware of.
Newbs come in and think they know what is going on, but they never see where the object of the flag bit the hand feeding them, or disparaged it at the least.

I have watched people I fully support in their opinions get nuked because they wouldn't just let it go.
The hive has more positives than negatives, or it would go away.

That said, this isn't the place for just anybody.
Games have rules, or there is no game.