I too can see the merits and arguments both ways, and thus can’t yet personally form an opinion on whether one is better suited to me than the other. Given it’s instance specific; I’m seeing how either strategy plays out in terms of what my feeds ends up looking like on one versus the other. Choice is a good thing IMHO, and choice is what one doesn’t have when locked into a single system. I believe lack of said choice on certain centralized platforms is what drove the furry to alternatives such as this one.
I believe it also depends on your instance. For example; Lemmy.one disables downvotes entirely. There are some good arguments for this approach, such as not allowing people to downvote something they may disagree with, yet may be something that’s valid or factual and should not be buried.
A sad day indeed!
Awesome work! Big respect to all the data hoarders out there, doing their bit to preserve the thoughts and opinions of the many!