This is IMHO the most unfortunate thing about how HN has changed in the last 10 years or so. People downvote now as a form of disagreement, rather than using it as a form of collective moderation. The net result is that the popular opinions rise, while unpopular opinions tend to fall or die out.

On the plus side, it does make for an interesting barely scientific way to poll for popularity of a topic on HN. Absolutely not worth it IMHO, but it is at least a bit interesting.