Honestly the downvote was pointless. If someone wants to cause problems down voting isn't going to stop them. Disabling the voting system isn't going to cause chaos on the forums... That's why we have forum moderators.
The down vote system was mainly used as a harassment tool by immature people. So I understand why they would disable it. Less complaints over stupid nonsense about vote counts.
Just think of it this way. Now no one can take your precious votes away <object class="emojione" data="
https://resources.enjin.com/1489581540/themes/core/images/emojione/svg/1f61b.svg?0" type="image/svg+xml" standby=":p">:p</object>