I understand your frustration with the "Hive mentality". I've witnessed tons of downvote wars over different issues on this chain. I love healthy competitions but if you've ever been caught in between downvoting war of Whales as a small account, you will quit the platform. Look at what Leo has built over time. Now imagine some big accounts that put all active lions on automatic downvotes.
I don't know what you expect of me so as not to have this "hive mentality". If you have a solution, I don't think publishing behind a paywall will help so much. I don't know about others, but I do my research quite well before voting in witnesses. The ones I can't research, I mirror the votes of those I trust. I would rather keep my vote than just throw them at a random account.