Source: personal experience. Usenet was a wretched hive of trolls and flame wars. I will gladly sacrifice a few unpopular takes if that's what it takes to do away with that nonsense. And I can tell you, from experience, works. For every unpopular take at a score of -2 or so, there are probably ten more at -9000 that we can totally do without.

Yes, it means that people expressing an unpopular opinion have to be very careful with tone and phrasing. But they ought to be doing that anyway. Nobody ought to think they can just waltz into a community, say something that completely contradicts their raison d'etre without any attempt at respectful framing, and expect to be welcomed with open arms.

A comment is usually a lot more expressive than a downvote, adding valuable context to something other than just marking something as bad.

I feel like this could go either way, depending on moderation. A good response to something you don't like can make an interesting and nuanced convo for third parties to read. A bad one can just lead to arguments.

I think in a large anonymous place like reddit you end up with arguments because there's no built-in good will and not enough moderation. Lemmy communities might be able to mitigate some of that to encourage substantive disagreement.