I don't have a full solution yet, but I'm thinking about it from time to time. Unfortunately it will probably be a hard sell and if implemented the wrong way could be dangerous, which is why I've not talked a lot about it this far.
Neither Busy.org or beta.Chainbb.com utilizes the flag icon or hides messages. As far as I know, messages only become collapsed on Steemit and blacked out on eSteem.
I think it's unfortunate that there's only one downvote/'flag' button. Imo flag symbols and reputation attacks can work well against abuse, but such functions should be separated from simple content downvotes. This would help encourage opinionated voting and discourage reputation games.
To directly answer your question, I encourage downvoting based on personal taste as long as you also switch to better sites/apps and ask developers to make this change to the way downvotes work.
We need to stop talking so much about Steemit, frankly. Steemit is irrelevant compared(!) to Steem.
If this network is to survive, we can't make ourselves psychologically, technologically or economically dependant on Steemit. If we choose to do that for long enough, this becomes just another network among the many.