0.5$ is way too much for dust threshold, I'm not sure if that is true, and probably unreachable for the majority of the platform (believe it or not).

It's the same old thing with "new" users (the ones that stay)... Currently, there are few projects out there seeking for them and supporting them in order to get better traction and visibility... well, nowadays it's not working at all.

Most likely with 50/50 people will vote more, but there is the old question - who will get these votes, their friends, their accounts, closed group of friends.
For sure with 50/50 bots will earn more - UNLESS... the free flag thingy put some caution into using the bots, i.e. you pay for the vote for someone to take it away = > why would you risk it ==>> less job for bid bots.

And regarding downvotes... we have a centralized institution with more than 1.5 million SP to do the job of flagging abusive behavior and plagiarism, and they just sit there and watch - saying we have a good reason not do downvote/flag that guy with (500k + SP) - but they can punish some good old steemian for reposting HIS OWN 1 year old work... :)

Anyway - sometimes the only thing to move forward is to take a leap of faith - but sometimes it's better to think about it for few seconds - after all concrete is deadly most of the times.

And you probably know that joke: "budha, budha, budha, budha..." :)

Guess nothing of this makes any sense :D