Using and navigating this site would be a huge pain in the ass without them.

I can understand getting rid of downvotes to reduce hostility, but removing votes as a whole is just a bad idea. Effort posts would immediately get buried under shitposts that only took a few seconds (Not saying those are inherently bad ofc., but there needs to be a balance).

Every post would just turn into a contest of "Who sees it and comments first", which would suck. I unironically do not want to return to the "First!" era of commenting.