I would consider it a "neutral" vote so it might be worth including in "x number of votes" info.

Making anything of my having passed over the node initially, wouldn't seem right. It might even create a contradictory signal if I later gave it a ++.

I guess you didn't really follow the preceeding discussion. Nobody is proposing counting when somebody defers voting, only when one abjures ever voting upon a node (in order to be shown the node's reputation), a feature that has not been implemented.