While I agree with you, one has to realize that downvoting existed before flagging. At the time, it was used mostly for suppressing spam/trolls and egregiously

While I agree with you, one has to realize that downvoting existed before flagging. At the time, it was used mostly for suppressing spam/trolls and egregiously rude people. Now we have flagging for that, although I still occasionally downvote stuff that is rude rather than flagging. Consider it like a minor flag. That said, I'd be fine if it went away and we just had upvotes and flags, but we've discussed this ad infinitum.