Exactly. The red bar on a profile speaks more louder than the -Karma itself. Though when you received -Karma it is painful but when you do well and create good content then when more positive karmas inflow then your negative karma you were angry with would be a thing of the past. But the red bar has different interpretation about the user. Probably he is spammer, shitposter, scammer etc. And the worst of them all you can't use the account to participate in signature campaigns, and bounty hunting.
Getting positive karma is infinitely easier in time and effort than removing the red dot from the profile. I've read numerous posts from users "scared" of receiving negative karma, and it's something that is hard for me to understand, because receiving positive karma is not difficult. Let's make quality posts, let's help other users, let's listen to those who think differently from us... Keeping an open mind not only allows us to help, but it also keeps us learning.
I think the best thing is that even if they have the red dot on the profile, the affected users have the possibility to show that they want to change their behavior, and that over time, the red dot can disappear from their profiles. So no one will have an excuse not to try to improve.
I don't know exactly when that will be, but we'll have an update on the quality bar soon.