IMHO, the margin for nodes that some monks will think should qualify for such treatment would be so wide as to cause a great deal of thrash with this treatment being applied way too much followed by much complaining and arguing. The criterion "does not contribute to communication meaningfully" is too wide and vague.

We have a continuing problem with over-reaping already. The proposed level of "punishment" is not low enough to avoid the strife when the tool is inevitably over-applied.

You'd be better off proposing a slashdotian reputation threshold such that negative-rep nodes below a viewer's selected threshold would be hidden.