Inconsistency of flagging is perhaps the worst possible outcome. It is important to remember that Steem is an experiment in decentralized budgeting and governance.
With great power comes great responsibility, and whales have a responsibility to their fellow steemians to vote consistently and in the best interest of the platform.
It is clear that some people view this is a game to be played selfishly rather than as a team. The system was designed to prevent abuse by small players, but short of a benevolent dictator, is helpless against larger players.
A misbehaving whale is like a majority shareholder voting to dilute minority shareholders disproportionally.
Steemit is based on the idea of a quorum of stakeholders being necessary to approve disproportionate dilution. A large whale represents their own quorum and thus has greater responsibilities to fellow token holders than a small minnow.
Those pushing for more linear rewards are removing the need for a quorum and the end result is the pathological behavior displayed by some whales will play out on a wider scale.
RE: Whales upvoting chosen accounts crap for the rewards is one thing, attacking the rewards of a genuinely productive account is utter madness