Neither: I think it's too early to implement it. Shitcoiners seek to mislead newbs and they don't have that audience here.

Also, I'd like to see how far financial micro-inventives work before adding other social-based controls.

Block lists for sure, I can't think of any reason not to. We want ways to filter out people we don't like. Downvoting though? I don't want another reddit. The cream will rise to the top with the current system of tipping sats to good posts.

what is the main benefit of blocking someone rather than muting them?

If "upvoting" adds sats maybe by downvoting you could steal sats! /s