Have you read the whitepaper? Downvotes have always been thought as a tool to go against self and group voting behaviour. It's a basic part of the concept of rewarding the best content, not the people with the biggest wallets.

Don't worry about the investors. I know quite a few who buy exactly because they finally have a way to do something against the self rewarding which has become a habit in the last years. If we can turn this ship around and start to care about content instead of people, steem will have a chance to grow again.