In every message board I've ever participated in, flagging is never immediate action but just that: a flagging for a moderator to take a look at the post to determine if it needs to be censored due to terms of service violation OR if it is just blatant trolling that needs to be kicked to the curb.
Should flagging have a validation system?
IMHO: Absolutely!
...But still! The question I am reaching for here is:
Do YOUR posts deserve to be DEVALUED because people disagree with them?
In your post, you start it off saying:
"Well, it all depends..."
What I'm hearing you say is: even if on a small cent-sual level, you WANT to DEVALUE other people's posts if you disagree with them AND also be open to having OTHERS dislike your post and DEVALUE it in return?
I'm all for flagging - but for it being what it is supposed to be about rather than it taking on the likeness and image of a downvote --- which IMHO strictly shouldn't exist.
IF this is about subjective content, the very act of DEVALUING someone else's viewpoint translates into this becoming a flame war steemit-style... And what I mean by this is: flags for all, lots of petty downvoting, and a bunch of users sitting around feeling like they just wasted precious hours DEVALUING when they could have been CREATING...
...This is what you meant, isn't it?
Or have I misinterpreted your meaning?