We've noticed that his VP is pretty low lately, so it's possible that he can't keep up with downvoting everybody that continues to support SBI.
Sounds like you have a reasonable approach. We have always tried to stay out of downvote wars, too. Our refusal to engage in retaliatory downvoting has helped a lot in that regard.
Sadly this time they sought us out specifically, and downvoted in a way that hurt lots of innocent bystanders, even though there are tons of programs autovoting worse content for less regard for quality and overall impact.