Hello @eonwarped, no need to be sorry, and thanks for adding to the conversation!
I think at the very least Steemit could remove the dithering and post hiding, and maybe replace that with some type of visual indicator in feeds that content has been flagged. This would give people the opportunity to counter the flag if they disagreed with it.
More radically I think they should nix it all together. People could still flag content from other platforms, but it would make this platform more positive in general. Of course they'd have to figure out an alternative solution for dealing with spam though.
But yeah, at the very least; the first part would definitely be doable.
Oh interesting.. I like the idea of the marker of shame instead of hiding the post. But on the other hand suppressing spam is useful... What to do what to do..... Maybe there's a way to accomplish both. Actually the fact that flagged comments go to the bottom should be enough of a censorship in itself? Hum. But then you can spam in response to a high value comment too. Dunno.
Interesting ideas, keep those wheels a turning! The more we question, and contemplate, the faster we get to the answers.