I'm not sure I agree with what you're saying, Beverly. Thumbs represent that people like a photo. If someone likes a photo, they give it a thumb. If a photo someone really likes is '2nd in line' and giving it a thumb moves it up, then giving it that thumb is not 'manipulating' (in the negative 'corrupting' sense you are describing), but simply a vote to move a photo up. It's not possible to take a photo way down in the 'like' space and move it to the top simply by giving it a thumb.
However, I think this thread (since we are being purists about threads) is about how we represent pollinators and other bugs in the database, and not about thumbs per se. Perhaps the 'thumb' issue would be best handled by starting a thread in the 'site talk' forum? It is really a site issue and not a pollinator/bug issue.
