Personally I didn't vote on your post, but many use it as a YAY or NAY especially on changes to the Monastery.
I don't think these are people belittling you, just letting you know they think this is a bad idea. (Though voting/XP can be a touchy subject around here.)
I would have to agree with them. If everyone had unlimited votes, the system would be pretty meaningless. Not that it's always an accurate reflection of the content of a node, but I think it would be even less so.