"I notice that the monks appear to have succumbed to the popularity gods and implemented a similar system.

You've had an account here for 16 years, you're wrong, this feature has always existed, none of the other sites mentioned existed back then. Most of the things that get downvoted on here are absolute garbage, and the system hides sufficiently stinky (low reputation) garbage from those who aren't logged in and search engines, in addition the janitorial garbage collection and automated reaping system requires sufficient negative votes..