Edit: obligatory explanation (thanks mods for squaring me away)...
What you see via the UI isn't "all that exists". Unlike Reddit, where everything is a black box, there are a lot more eyeballs who can see "under the hood". Any instance admin, proper or rogue, gets a ton of information that users won't normally see. The attached example demonstrates that while users will only see upvote/downvote tallies, admins can see who actually performed those actions.
Edit: To clarify, not just YOUR instance admin gets this info. This is ANY instance admin across the Fediverse.
Option 4. is maybe the easiest option for you then. And I say that without wanting you gone.
Oh no, don't take this the wrong way. You've been perfectly amiable about this throughout this discussion, I have no reason to believe you'd want me gone. I am currently considering Option 4 indeed, though I want to stay for a bit to see how this all pans out. I have other issues and concerns with the fediverse anyway.
I’d like to point out a flaw with your analogy though: if you go to a restaurant you pay the people to make what you want. ... A better analogy is going to a potluck without bringing anything and being unhappy about the lack of steak.
That is a fair point, but this is a free service. There isn't any expectancy about one contributing to it.
Perhaps a more apt analogy from my perspective would be going to a free art museum and being disappointed there isn't any art I like, and several other people agree with me. I can ask the museum team to maybe get some more art in I and the others like, but it's up to the museum to do so, and I can't make art for shit and would take years to make something worthwhile. At worst, I just leave the museum, it owes me nothing, and I owe nothing to it.
I am generally shit at analogies though, so y'know, making an analogy is probably a bad idea.
