Your theory is sound, just like the theory of communism, socialism and democracy is sound. It remains to be seen as to whether it will actually work that way when implemented.

Which is why it needs to be trialled. Since all econoies have failed so far "communism, socialism and democracy" and we are trying to do something different and succeed - it is going to take trial and errors. luckily, this is possible on Steem if people stop thinking like they live in a government of "communism, socialism and democracy" and act the same.

Personally, it won't make me want to use downvotes any more than I already do, which is pretty much never. My upvotes do the job for me. If I don't think something should have rewards, I don't give it any and if I think it's under valued, then I'm going to give it 100% and might even resteem it.

keep an eye on abuse at least.

I think a trending page with different algorithms would do much more than making downvotes more attractive.

It isn't enough because authors want to get paid from the pool but a great deal of the pool is going to crap that will should never appear anywhere near trending. Hard to advertise success if the content that should get rewarded, isn't.

Whether or not you like the traditional social media sites, when it comes to the trending algorithms, they're doing it right.

The way Steem interfaces do this is up to them, the way Steem does it is up to us. With the incoming tokenized experiences, authors have more ways to earn than ever yet, everyone still wants it out of the Steem pool. How many bought into PALnet in the hopes that it would turn into a place for content producers? about the same number who bought into Steem originally probably. Not many. Same processes over and over, many people don't want to invest in their future but still want to have support for it.