On Steem, I can't do much of anything to censor or remove a post made by you even 30 minutes ago. I can't downvote it and make it go away from the Steem blockhain. What a downvote does is reduce a post's rewards or its potential rewards.

It also can reduce an account's reputation score, but even accounts with negative reputation score aren't censored from the blockchain. It's a non-consensus attribute. Front ends don't need to display its effects at all, if they choose not to.

So how is it that the original intent of Steem* is not being lived up to? And why, if you equate downvoting with censorship, do you think there is nothing wrong with downvoting "inappropriate comment or hate speech" when you are implying that you'd prefer to use an uncensored platform?

*The original intent of Steemit, the website front end, was to be a Reddit-alike (not just blogging) reference example. It can and does censor posts in the form of DMCA takedown requests. Please understand the terms you're using and use them more precisely.