Quality is subjective though. It seems that HIVE tends to equate quality with the length of posts. Heck, I'm not even sure some supposed curators even read a post fully or if they just look at the word count and scroll through it briefly.
Back to downvotes. I'm not a fan of it and I don't think many new users who're onboarded will even know what it is. It will be offputting to see a downvote if you've just joined a new platform. I do believe that votes should withheld instead if people don't agree with the quality of the content. Why use a negative tool to zero out the votes when the lack of "likes" aka "interaction via votes" does the same thing. It will make for a more positive experience and those potential users would then (presumably) put in more effort if they want those likes.
Some do. However, there is also something to be said about adding weight to a position. For my content, I want it to feel like a written podcast perhaps - where people are listening to the conversations in my head, parsed through my observations with others.
Probably. But there are plenty of people who have been here ages that should know better, but don't.
Because there is financial incentive. Ignoring shoplifters doesn't discourage shoplifting.