there needs to be some type of measure against that as well.
That's why I created @freezepeach, to counteract downvotes. And when it has the voting power, it does exactly that; votes just enough to counter all of the flag's rshares, not a penny more. The problem tho, is the damage is already done. What I think happens is the dopamine fix that people are expecting gets crushed by the downvote, and even if that somehow gets rectified cent-for-cent later. From my interactions, the effect of neutralizing downvotes has been a blessing for some, but not good enough for most. This tells me it's about much more than the rewards.
Removal of rewards however I think would kill the platform as there really are not many other use cases for Hive right now.
Agreed, some things need to be put into place before rewards can be removed. But I believe it needs to be a goal to work toward, and people need to start mentally preparing for it now, so when it does occur they're not blindsided by the news.