I don't think it's anywhere near disastrous - hyperbole.
But, IMO, it's beyond stupid. Not because of rep, but because it sends a clear message to the current whiners and would be whiners that whines work.
So, everyone should whine to staff - and whine a lot.
I agree. That's exactly what happened at the previous board I posted on.
We had a handful of posters who weren't there to post real content and debate, and were there more to whine, snipe, and act like asshats than to debate and discuss. The board tended to police itself through rep. These asshats started whining because they were getting negged until the board's owner eventually gave in instead of leaving well enough alone and pretty much cut the balls off of the rep system against the wishes of the majority of the posters.
A lot of us left over that. I've lurked occasionally over there since my departure and that board is now deader than 4 o'clock. Now the same whiners are falling all over themselves suggesting changes to their forum layout, emailing old posters who left, and all sorts of stupid shit to try to draw posters in and revive the board, and they still haven't gotten it through their thick skulls that they killed it. One Mod understands what happened, but the board's owner and the rest of the staff aren't listening to him.
Don't do that to USMB. The rep system here was just fine the way it was.