i agree with your analysis here :
https://steemit.com/steemit/@kingofchaos/why-would-anybody-buy-this-shitcoin
that there would be a large divergence between what is voted on and what people are 'looking for' but i just put all that down to manipulation, and that could be corrected with simple design fixes.
What can't really be corrected is if the 'flag' option can really 'delete' or render 'unseen' content.
the only possible design fix would be to include a 'flagged' tab at the top which shows all 'flagged' posts and allows for sorting it.
RE: Is Steemit Cooked? due to the The 'Flag' option? - Steemit a failure? But it's OK because Steemit uses 'Websockets.'