I agree with your point about the vote system. The single change Lemmy made that I think makes it much healthier is that you have no profile total up or down votes. There is no reason to chase imaginary internet points, while giving the court of public opinion the tools to tell you your wrong.

For example, Youtube became a much more unreliable place when it removed the dislike button. So much so that third party plugins now are what people have to use to decide, at a glance, if something is worthy of other peoples time.