As someone who frequently uses the ability to flag downvote content, I see them vital to the success to Steem.
The reward pool is a community asset and if you own stake (Steem Power) you can control how those rewards are distributed based on your stake. This is not (and should not) be limited to increasing rewards.
How content is rewarded is decided by the community, the right you own to decide if content is worth more is the same right I own as a stakeholder to decide it is worth less. I never heard anyone complain the received an upvote increasing their potential rewards on their content. Decide it should be worth less and you will never hear the end of it.
The old adage of reward the behaviors you want to encourage works in both directions. Anyone who has more than 0 Steem Power has a privilege and the responsibility to influence how the reward pool is distributed.
Flagging does not steal rewards
There are two misconceptions I see constantly on this platform.
You do not own your rewards until after they have been paid out. During the 7-day payout window the community is deciding how much to reward content. Unfortunately, it is poorly done in both directions, but that is the goal. When content is flagged, rewards are not stolen, they are returned to the reward pool.
When content is flagged, the user doing the flagging gains nothing. They don't acquire your potential rewards, and in fact, they are sacrificing their own potential rewards by using their voting power to reallocate rewards back to the reward pool. Two votes are used and returned to the reward pool. If the flag was quality negative curation it is a gift to the community and increases the potential rewards of other users.
Bad Negative Curation
Almost everyone receiving a flag (negative curation) will complain they were unjustly flagged. Flagging has created more drama than reality TV. Poor negative curation does happen and is the result of emotions tied to financial incentives.
When I flag I do so with the greater good of the blockchain in mind. Negative curation is just as important and in many cases more important.
No one wants to see rewards removed on their content, but without flags, the majority of the user base will put the least amount of effort into content creation to gain the most rewards. This means plagiarism and other forms of using someone else's work to obtain rewards.
