I genuinely don’t know so forgive my ignorance. What does downvoting do for moderation purposes? People still see it on their feed and don’t downvotes count for “active” posts to be presented? It does not remove the rule-breaking post and if people just downvote them a mod might completely miss the post since no one is reporting it.
I don’t think you’re aware of what’s getting downvoted as other users have expressed in these comments. How does one “self-moderate” being a different gender from what someone wants to see or being unattractive to the person downvoting? Your scenario highlights the abuse is effective at dissuading anything someone might not “like”, not content that doesn’t fit the communities posting guidelines.