I think people should use trust ratings however they please (AKA the current system!). All of this "rules about trust" nonsense is foolish.

Don't like how my ratings might unduly influence others? Then either give me two trust systems (one for public consumption and one for private use), or educate people on what trust is, how to read feedback pages, why to trust or doubt my ratings, etc. Putting the burden of behaviour modification on people who got inducted into DT is a backwards-thinking approach that doesn't tackle the root cause of the issue -- noobs getting misled by inaccurate feedback.

Imagine if all the time wasted on this thread was put towards writing a guide that helped new users understand how to objectively weigh presented evidence to form their own opinion! 

But I guess it's way easier to just wag the chin about "mob action" and complain about how everything is unfair.

After all, complaining fixes things, right?