By default, Lemmy allows downvotes globally. However, when a server disables downvoting, it is similar to using a feature that is usually reserved for enterprises and very small, non-federated communities.
If a user prefer to not see downvotes, they can disable it by his favourite client settings, but the rest of the community should not miss this functionality for the pleasure of few users.
Before there was no voting, just conversations. Scoring interactions is toxic.
Hmm, maybe… but if this is what you think, then why use Lemmy at all? This is basically a core function of the platform. If you just want conversation, there are other platforms that are built for that.
So your logic is that since we already have some toxic we should just go ahead and make it more toxic?
Make it less by removing downvotes, at the least.