A lot of good points. As you know I am on your downvote trail as well as a few others.
As a minnow, newbie and someone focused on content creation more than anything else with my time on STEEM, I haven't ever retaliated a downvote with another downvote. I have engaged the user on the rare occasions where an actual posting account had downvoted me, but never tried to instigate things or start a downvote war.
I think I'm in a lucky position, as a lot of curators have taken a liking to my content, and I know my posts will well enough that a string of downvotes still won't hurt me much. I worry more about new users who are still working on perfecting their posting, and are being blackmailed by powerful accounts who offer to remove a downvote which basically consumes all their potential payouts.
I'm sure this is very discouraging to a new user.
I hope these people will raise their hand instead of capitulating to that. As in your case, there are many here that don't take kindly to bullies.