This is only a problem if it is left to us to vote on or something similar. Which is sort of where we are at perhaps. If the creators of the site (not just random whales with personal grudges) were to make a decision and make it very known we would basically have to accept it because it would be a steemit rule, created and enforced by steemit creators. Then, anyone that did not comply would simply suffer consequence like they would for breaking any other rule on any other site anywhere else on the web.

Does that suck for some, yea it sure does. However on every site you go to there are rules that govern what you can and cannot do there. For instance on many sites you cannot have nudity. That was never voted on and some don't like it but they simply go somewhere else or deal with it. In that type of scenario there is far less controversy because it simply comes as site rules.

When someone has not broken a site rule, for instance by self voting, then anyone that hurts them or their rewards for it is being malicious and harmful to that person over a personal thought or belief. It is basically cyber bullying in a new form.