I agree. I don't think flags are a very good system anyway. In psychology this is referred to as positive/negative reinforcement conditioning. Of the four kinds of conditioning (positive/positive, positive/negative, negative/negative, negative/positive) positive / negative is the least effective. In this case the first part refers to whether the conditioning is being given or taken away. The second part is the type of conditioning.
For example:
positive (giving a) / positive (reward), <-- Proven to be the best form of psychological reinforcement. This is what upvoting does.
negative (taking away) / positive (reward) <-- Reward money disappears when flagged. This is somewhat more effective than:
positive (giving a) / negative (punishment) <-- Receiving a punishment is the worst form of psychological conditioning and is usually ineffective. This is why so many dog owners have bad behaving dogs. They believe that positive/negative (giving a punishment includes hitting, yelling, scolding, etc.) is effective when it clearly is not.
negative (taking away) / negative (a punishment) <-- This is a type of conditioning not used by Steemit in which a negative thing is removed which is in itself a reward, such as the removal of a limitation or prior punishment.