What are you suggesting? - Remove all reaction features + rep. (Or just negative reacts)
We can express our opinion very clearly on posts by providing a +/-Support and an explanation attached. We can also like or dislike posts that we agree or disagree with, but a big issue is mostly tied to dislike reactions. People have been penalized for disliking posts even though they are just expressing their opinion without going in-depth. I'm aware that there are people that rep bomb, but those cases should be investigated and judged based on repeated offenses within a period of time and not by coincidence. Right now, if a group of like-minded individuals all disagree with the post, and dislike it together, they may be punished for rep bombing. Even if it wasn't coordinated at all. If 1 person disliked 1 post today, and it happened to get 10 additional dislikes, that person may be prosecuted for rep bombing along with everyone else involved. Forum diplomats even go as far as removing negative reactions if they get a big number of dislikes. Effectively making the rep system inaccurate as users rep is getting altered.
If we are going to have a reputation system that is affected by people liking and disliking our posts, then it shouldn't be altered. If people cannot handle the idea of having their posts disliked and accept people's opinions, then we shouldn't have this system in place. If people are abusing the rep system, then it needs to be properly investigated and reviewed.
At the very least, we need to remove negative reactions so these issues of rep bombing and people getting punished for being involved in a post that received mass dislikes. However, I think we should just get rid of rep as a whole.
How would this make the website better? - Users don't have to fear of unnecessary repercussions because they are disliking a post they genuinely feel is poorly thought out. It will also help partially remove some forum toxicity with the rep system.