I get your point. For me (and I suppose for some other people) works a bit different. When I’m not actively participating in a conversation, up/down vote is a quick way to show agreement/disagreement. I cannot upvote something that I complete disagree. However, in cases that I’m actively engaging, I don’t use it as a punishment tool so I just abstain. Like here, I weren’t downvoting you because it was an active ongoing conversation and I expressed myself by comments. You were actively engaging in good faith (I suppose) so it was fine. But at the same time I could not upvote either the comments in which I was finding myself disagreeing (I think I upvoted 1-2 at the end). However people are “passing-by” and up/downvote to show their view. Don’t take it as your punishment. But also you cannot “demand” that since you wrote something that you believe contributes to a discussion everyone should also believe that your points were so well made that should be upvoted even though they disagree. By this logic we should upvote everything that is longer that 5 words.