I’m not the person you responded to but, I also run with down-votes disabled. I found that paying attention to them was negatively impacting the platform and creating an echo chamber based off populous opinion. Since turning them off, my experience on the platform has been quite a bit more enjoyable. It’s not that I really have a mentality that is different than what the populous opinion is but, I much prefer not seeing them as it removes the potential of “oh this post has been downvoted” because that makes you go into reading it with an already poisoned mindset.
I can definitely understand that as well. I rely on someone replying to the comment if I say something that is unclear or misinterpreted. It allows me to have better feedback anyway then trying to figure out where I went wrong on my own, plus it avoids being able to dismiss it as “well maybe it was just a unpopular opinion so it was downvoted”. I also find effort a huge factor as well, meaning that if someone went through the hassle/effort of responding to my comment then chances are it’s not an opinion type deal and more of either I wasn’t clear or there was a misunderstanding. (when the reply is opposing of course)