I agree it gets all complicated in the semantics of the steem blockchain algorithm.
If I use my steem power to upvote you and give you funds out of my portion of the rewards pool that I invested in having, I can't think of a better word than stealing for someone to go and downvote the funds I gave to you away from you; even if the downvoters themselves do not actually get the funds. If that happened to you, wouldn't it feel like stealing?
Even the best intentions of Robin Hood were still considered "stealing from rich to give to the poor". The simple fact of the matter is that whether one takes the check that's in the mail (like the steemit 7 day period propagating the funds) or funds out of someone's pocket or bank account, it's still stealing in my book, even if they don't actually keep the stolen funds; and I'm sure anyone who's new here like me would agree, if it happened to them too. This is what I see as probably the number one fault of steemit.