I personally think it's an excellent move, and I couldn't be happier about it. Am I speaking out of a position of privilege with my ranking?

Definitely.

Did I use coercion to obtain my ranking?

Nope.

Did I genuinely care about each and every member of this community and do my best to increase the well-being of everyone involved?

Absolutely.

Do the people who (both here and in chat) seem to care the least about the well-being of others now have the lowest reputation scores? From my perspective, yes. Is my perspective subjective? Yes. As someone interested in #anarchism and voluntary interactions, I'm fine with rules, just not rulers. Real life involves consequences, both good and bad. For those who spent the first few months of their Steemit career causing problems for those around them, I have very little sympathy. Could they create a new account and start fresh? Yep. I think this is an important step forward for the platform to create a place on the Internet where you can actually read the comments and have constructive debate.

Flagging for disagreements seems silly and petty to me. I hope it doesn't happen. Maybe someday they'll implement a downvote instead of a flag (though I know, in the code it's just a downvote, regardless of how the Steemit.com UI displays it).

Either way, I upvoted your post not because I agree with all of it, but because I agree the discussion should be had. Thanks for letting me share my opinion. :)