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Removing downvotes does not improve the experience other than giving the illusion that nobody disagrees with anyone else. Unless your instance has some very weird need to maintain a false sense of positivity, downvotes should be enabled.
In the beginning on Reddit at least it felt like the votes worked as a validation of the argument. But as the site grew it was impossible to convince people, that even if you disagree, a comment can be valid and worth your upvote.
And when enough people give up and downvotes based on whether they agree or not, you basically get an echo chamber of popular opinions.
I have my own little rule. If I make a comment I have to upvote the post or comment that I’m replying to, since it somehow gave me reason to spend time thinking about and commenting on.