Agreed, people should band together. But they should also decide if using VP to reverse downvotes is worth it or not when they develop a program. How else could you nerf downvotes in such a way?

This is key. Eventually, they are going to be defending indefensible stuff. However, I think the appeal is limited because no one outside the block is going to vote for people in the block and downvotes will hurt them. They are better to avoid negative attention.