It's just that it's a trend that I've noticed, and one that may have a corrosive effect on this community by essentially disincentivizing social niceties and the like. Despite the consistent downvotes, I personally plan on continuing forth in my effort to acknowledge those who address me even if I have nothing else to say, and also never leave anybody hanging, but you can probably see why many would not.

I do agree that yes, I should deal with the inevitable downvotes in these sorts of situations because plenty of people downvote for bad reasons. But I don't agree that I should just give up trying to change the trend for a reason like, "You can't control what they do." Well, why can't I? Sure, I can't hope to influence everybody, but this isn't an isolated event--it's been a trend for a long time.

I'm going to continue posting quick acknowledgments when they're appropriate whether or not I get downvoted anonymously each time, but I don't see why I shouldn't also respond to them by defending my comments and engaging in meta discussion about what sorts of voting patterns would be optimal in this community.