I don't think the issue is cannabis posts being good or bad.

I think it's that someone actively punished @KrNel by taking away some of his reward for a post that he highly valued. If it had happened to his lower quality post too, there would be less issue, but instead, people are deliberately trying to influence him to post things they want to see, and the form of influence isn't just carrots.

They include a stick, by removing rewards, and the biggest issue is that @KrNel is upset because his most favorite post he wrote got punished, while the lesser post he wrote got rewarded.

This truly irritates a writer, because instead of getting "commission" type influence, where he can choose to either write about his favorite topic, OR a topic he knows will make lots of money, he's instead forced to only write for the money, because people will actively ruin his profits by flagging what he just wants to share with people, despite any potential popularity payout.

I mean, we all know that some types of content won't make much money, but we publish it anyways, just to share the idea. It's fine if it doesn't make lots of money, but when it DOES make money, but someone else feels the need to remove that money, it's just a heartbreaking feeling.

Not of "oh no, I'm sad I don't get money", but a feeling of "This community is broken. Why am I punished for work that people liked and upvoted just because some rich person didn't like it? I deserve the money that people give me via votes."

It's the same as someone ordering food at a restaurant.

If it's good, people will pay for it and tip.

If it's bad, people want their money back. That's fair.

But what's unacceptable is for people to take more money than they spent, robbing the restaurant of money they collected from other patrons.

Same with flagging for these frivolous reasons.