I mostly avoid the Pit, but would rather see it gone. An analogy that I see as fitting is how society deals with criminals - there are several reasons to put people in prisons, but the reasons can be roughly summarized as retribution, rehabilitation, deterrence, and protection of the public. The Pit is basically 10% deterrence and 90% retribution, so I see it as being a pretty ineffective form of justice much like many prisons are that focus heavily on retribution.
Basically, I think the ability to shit on other posters and have this validated by other posters just reinforces peoples’ animosity towards each other, and makes for a hostile environment for people with unpopular opinions. I suppose that might be one of the purposes of the Pit, though, to make the forum a hostile place for the Bricker’s, Sam Stone’s and Martin Hyde’s of the forum. For some reason, being able to ignore their posts so that they’re hidden is not enough for people who hate their posts - they need to be able to pillory them in the public square to be satisfied.