You can't really compare Reddit to Steemit. But people tend to use the analogy. Steemit is not some simple service, it is a wild anarchy in constant movement, but who knows where it will end. One steem has been worth a lot and could be so again in the future.
A downvote on reddit wont take money away from you, so it is used more carefully here. But when people do things that potentially can damage the whole community it is used rather ruthlessly.
I'll remove my downvote as you didn't do this on purpose and didn't get all these admittedly rather confusing changes. I guess you are more or less up to date now on how things are running.
Yes, I'll chalk this one up to education and a reminder to not be without a laptop for 3+ months, although to be honest not having a laptop was pretty nice in a lot of ways.
I can (only) imagine :)