Downvotes were disabled because posts that touched on trans issues were routinely downvoted, often by the same users. Those users were purged and downvotes disabled to good effect.
Uninformed posters are given information if they are sincere.
Malicious posters get dunked on before getting banned.
It has worked very well in my opinion.
bad news for us, the next election cycle starts immediately after this one, it will never stop