So quit kicking me in the pants everyone! Once was enough.

Who are you talking to? Nobody downvoted your node twice. If the node's rep is at -10 that means there were 10 more people who downvoted it than upvoted it.

If 50 people see a node and think it's just barely worth a ++ then the node will have a 50 rep. If 20 people see an absolutely incredible node and think it's worth as many upvotes as possible, it will still only have a 20 rep. I haven't heard anyone claim a node's rep is in any way indicative of its quality.

Your suggestion was completely valid, so don't worry if you lose a few xp by bringing it up. Better to have a good discussion and reduce an imaginary number slightly than to increase that imaginary number while not learning anything.