Thank you @lexiconical for bringing up this discussion!
In my opinion steem is a self regulating system, so users should use their own power to change the system in a direction they feel is good.
Problem is that the power is in the hand of a few. What to do if one of them hates you for personal reasons?
This is a blessing and a curse of the blockchain. If you allow the full range of human social behavior, you get the full range of it. The good parts and the bad parts.
I confess I am not perfect. I get tired of explaining the same thing to a thousand people: Posting spam under other peoples post when they did not ask for it is not nice and some people may not like it. But should I flag it when my 1% flag is 23 cents and will push them from 25 rep to 18 rep? Should that be my decision alone? And if not, who would check with me?
I am glad that the MinnowBooster whitelist allowed you to make that point and bring it to many eyes. I am checking back in on the discussion in a few days, bookmarked!