Agreed. I use my downvote in cases of stalking, abuse, scams and the like. While I dislike people spamming their own content within my posts, I tend not to downvote them, but instead, write a warning, letting them know I will not read their posts if they spam them into comments. I think the whales misused their power and slammed innocent minnows who were struggling to get their posts seen. Giving people explanations instead of downvotes is a the proper thing to do in the cases of minnows seeking more exposure. Or at least if you downvote, let the person know why you're doing it, so they can learn for the future. This is basic emotional intelligence and proper use of empathic learning and teaching. Downvoting without explaning is a bad move and it is also insensitive. This only applies to people doing innocent self-promotion.
In the case of abusers, stalkers, and and scammers, of course, a heavy hand is necessary.
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Agreed @stellabella, I came across a someone commenting on a couple of posts this morning. The person wasn't spamming but his/her opinion that was being expressed was not in what would be considered to be conventional thinking. I didn't agree with most of what was said but did notice that some people had been flagging the person's posts. I looked further and found that the person had been flagged to the point he/she left the platform.
If that sort of bullying off the platform can take place using the post flag, I shudder to think what people like that would do with downvotes. Some may use downvotes reasonably but I suspect that would not be the majority.
Better to either respectfully express disagreement or move on than to allow anyone the power to downvote with impunity. The misuse of the post flags are bad enough. IMO