2 upvotes, 0 direct replies (showing 0)
View submission: Votes and Comments Incongruous
This is exactly how I operate as well. If you reply to me and aren't horrible, you get an upvote. If you participate in a post I've made and aren't objectively awful, you get an upvote.
To not get an upvote while engaging me is tantamount to getting a downvote. To actually reveive a downvote... man, you really gotta earn it.
As for OPs observations: Yes, downvotes are subtracted from upvotes; yes thousands will view a submission without interacting at all; yes people will even thank you and then not even have the presence of mind to upvote; and Yes, communities exist on a spectrum ranging from welcoming and prone to upvote to hostile and eager to downvote, I could literally make a graph.
There's nothing here!