I was replying to someone who said that an upvote doesn't matter, it doesn't cost anyone anything. I was simply stating that it does effect people because there are others on this site that are attempting to use this platform for what it was meant for, but you have whales like Haejin that abuse the system. Unfortunately even if those minnows stop upvoting him he still has his corrupt group upvoting him.
To you first point, that is the problem with this system. It was setup for people to be rewarded by other people for posting good content and they would police themselves. But this system is flawed. It is great for him to post bad TA and have people who do not even view his content to upvote him to a few hundred bucks.
Is it against conduct? I would argue that colluding on a upvote scheme and therefore manipulating the reward pools is a violation (it is the first criteria for flagging someone). The problem is there is no moderation so nothing can be done about it.
And just because other professionals may do it doesn't mean it is right. Even if they do not "deserve" it there is a difference between deserving it and scamming people.
I could easily have some friends jump on this platform, drop a bunch of money, and start doing the same thing he is doing. But i wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing I am just spamming posts to get enough upvotes for the day to maximize my profits while hurting not only the credibility of the platform by the other people posting content.
Is there anyone stopping a dev from making a scam coin, then dumping it onto undeserving investors and then abandoning the project? No, but just because you can make a profit without repercussions doesn't mean it is okay.
I find this platform was a good social experiment. They eliminated authority and left people to police themselves. And even though we are still in its infancy, we are already seeing what most people are made of, shit.