I have decided that I don't know how Righteousness works. It's a black box, and I don't know what's going on inside.
Here is how I have decided to approach the problem. My rating craters every 3 days or so. I have to assume others have the same problem. So I am simply going to plow through it. Everyone is going to need to clean. I will continue to vandalize my friends, even if it penalizes me. I clean my own town, and when my rating plummets, I will clean friends' towns as well. I have heard from at least one person with multiple towns that cleaning a friend's town does NOT remove their ability to clean it also. Regardless, I try to balance. If I need to clean in someone else's town, I also try to vandalize. It seems to all work out in the end.
Basically, just try your best, and don't get mad at how other people try. Don't flame each other. EA has made this inscrutable, and all we can do is help each other the best we can.
