This change makes the site safer, but a bit less interesting.

I can always count on 2 or 3 downvotes for every node. I've been around long enough to have gathered a few enemies - it was never a problem when I was new.

Having enemies has tought me a valuable lesson - having enemies is expensive. Not a bad lesson, I think.

The current problem that I have is that I don't like to comment on stale nodes as much as I used to, because the 2 or 3 downvotes that I will get will not be balanced by upvotes, and I don't like to have too many nodes with negative XP. Will this change help with that?

Of course it could all be an illusion. People tend to see patterns where none exist. Adding complex logic will reinforce the will to see patterns. And who knows - the change might accidentally remove the bug in the random number generator that I have been taking advantage of :-).