One thing that would help is for you to focus less on the whitepaper of the legacy chain and look at the one for this chain. Hive is a HF of the legacy chain however it's way more decentralized.
Upvotes and downvotes very literally get the same mention in the Hive whitepaper for the simple reason, they are the same. What is different is how we feel about them. Everyone loves upvotes, no one enjoys getting downvotes for any reason.
When you see 500 upvotes on a post .. you need to keep in mind that the vast majority of those upvotes come from automated votes. So that is not 500 people actually seeing and liking the post.
Automated upvotes are like Patrons. When they stop it's not much different than a Patron deciding to withdraw support.
Money and the ensuing power is always going to be present. I don't care what system is developed.
I look at the income I earn here and what I earn on Medium. One post here earns me more than I'd make in a month on Medium. So, I'll take the good with the bad. I'm impacted by the whale war, but it wont stop me from carrying on creating content and earning, even if a lower amount.
This also came to my mind too and like i told Dreemsteem, it does not matter because the downvotes does not determine who i am. For many weeks, I hardly got great upvotes but i still strived to make great content. Yet, it doesn't mean that it is right to carry on with whatever this is because it is not just affecting people but the same place they call home.
an upvote is similar to a Like on Web2 and a downvote is like Dislike which some Web2 has. Twitter calls it a downvote. So, the principle of being able to express both like and dislike is not new, it's just more noticed because both actions come attached to rewards.
As Dreemsteem wrote in her post, those rewards are not ours until the post pays out. So an upvote is potential rewards and a downvote reduces the potential.
Feeling disappointment at receiving one for any reason, right or wrong, is normal. Keeping it in perspective is important.