I feel your pain. I upvoted the same user on a post he made about the 1st Amendment and Free Speech a week or so ago. I also left a comment that supported his POV.
Nevertheless, the moron downvoted my comment. It's the only downvote I've ever had. But I didn't see any effect on my account or reputation scoring, so I chalked it up to it being a mistake on his part. But, just in case he was a lunatic, I also didn't want to start a pissing downvote war, so I just let the situation alone.
I do see value in some kind of downvote regime that allows the community to police itself, identifying bad actors and weeding them out, but also agree with your criticisms on how punching up at whales is harder than them punching down on a plankton, like myself. Hopefully, with time a system can be worked out that will make it more fair.
In addition to your fine suggestions, I was thinking that a downvote should have the same effect on everybody in hurting a reputation score, but also making it hurt a little for the one making a downvote. Like charging a downvoter three STEEM or something to make a downvote. I dunno...something like that.
It is very painful when one gets downvote for no reason. Downvote is an effective tool to curb bad things here but this has also become a tool of enforcing thoughts over others. Developers should think about it. Otherwise, this platform won't survive for long.
Yes this can be effective.