You are bringing up a great point here, and I think @ats-david's comment he linked was great too - basically, why should anybody feel entitled to the rewards?
It seems like there is a cycle that happens for many users. They work hard and build up a following - often doing 30+ hours a week of hustle just to net a few hundred dollars of steem. Then, once they are on the autovoters, they get lazy. Or at least, they set a mental expectation - "from now on, I deserve this much money from steem."
Personally I have been up and down the rollercoaster of steem too many times, from $500+ a week to less than $100 a week (and much less at the beginning)... so I take it as a personal challenge. getting flagged down is definitely brutal, but in this case, it is very clear why. The flags are due to a specific kind of content that is seen as abusive to the reward pool. If the user adjusts her posting methods, she can stop getting flagged... it seems reasonable to me.
Like if I was earning tons of money from my beat posts, and then got flagged, I'd be pissed for like two minutes. Then I'd say OK, fine, I'll change that content.
the flags are actually really good advertising for these accounts, brings a lot of attention to the authors, and I think in the long run it's a net positive. that's my only comment for the moment
lol "all publicity is good publicity..." maybe