I agree that this is the wrong mechanism for registering an objection to something someone is doing. If you see that someone plagiarized or put out something calling for violence or something like that there should be a way to show an objection so that others that come along can see it. OTOH, you are right that it magnifies the imbalance of power here between whales and smaller accounts. One person's opinion shouldn't be enough to keep me from reading something. If it is truly a community consensus showing "we don't tolerate plagiarism" or the like, with enough downvotes I can see that having an effect. Maybe not block the content but have an "objection area" on the page where people can officially object, but again with the caveat that this is is to be used sparingly and only under the most clearcut ethical violations.

The whale wars are enough that they could end up destablizing the community.