3) some people on default trust even make a hobby of marking red on people who haven't ever traded with them but with whom they simply disagree (see, for example, Vod vs MSCorp Key Sellers; or Quickseller vs. people who refuse to do business with him (
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1023038.0, inter alia))
Trust isnt moderate and everyone has the ability to give negative trust to someone based on his judgement, but only those of default trust will be visible to the other
This is exactly the echo that we hear each time from those on default trust who are having their ratings disputed "I have the right to a rate as I please".
However, as I point out in the OP, and as blazedout (above) acknowleges, there is a division between those whos ratings are just for themselves (most of us) and the gods whos ratings are for everyone (the default-trust <=2 group).
In this case, vod and quickseller got their own point of view regarding the matter and also the red trust is merely a guide for people to do some extra caution while dealing with user with red trust
allow people to build their own trust networks based on experience.
You can already do this with the current system, you can exclude vod or quickseller as well if you wish
Yes, I acknowledge this in my OP. It seems you didn't catch some of the subtlety? I'm not asking how the trust system works. I won't rehash my OP, just please look more carefully.
I think they have trimmed down the list a lot since CITM was removed. The trust system is working pretty good now with disputes in meta. I know that I always carefully decide when handing out a negative since it does carry some extra weight. There really is no perfect solution to this no matter how it is done, but the current list is pretty good.
You may be right that things are better than before, but I still read a lot of drama in Meta which seems completely like bluster from two parties with an assymetrical power relation. Ie, no one was scammed, no one was harmed except the reputation of one of the parties.
What about the solutions I propose? You say there's no perfect solution but you didn't address how my solutions wouldn't work or be an improvement.