I have mixed feelings in this. Ofcourse, in a perfect world (on a perfect platform), we'd ostracize the baddies. It happens plenty on here. Last night apparently (I was probably sleeping!), but also when my own content got stolen by another member. I'm very happy the community acts swiftly on such an occassion.
However, when is someone in the wrong? Scams and plagiarism are easy to recognize. What about the automatic downvoting of members who a whale disagrees with? Or what about two whales agreeing to upvote all of their friend's crappy posts? I might not agree with these actions, but I cannot touch a whale. Neither can most other members. And if you get on this whale's bad side, he'll drag you down together with his target. And will other whales disagree with him, or stick up for their own? We've seen whale fights here and they are not pretty. I'm sure most people think it wise to stay far away from them, if they hope to stay afloat on this platform. This is a tougher subject I think.
I feel we all should try and make Steem the best it can be and not tolerate bad actions. I'm just not always sure how to best handle it.
I'm in the same boat as you, @playfulfoodie. As a newbie I'm terrified of pissing off a whale or being ganged up on. Steemit is decentralized from nation and international governments, but there is undeniably a pyramid of power here that can easily slip into the bad habits of the past. As a budding new community, we're starting to confront structural issues that come when larger groups of human beings create a society.
I definitely don't know how best to handle it, but I'm very fortunate to have been in on this discussion and see the thought processes of everyone.