Regarding the message in the title, much like the Reddit downvote mob, after a while, the ones here on the federated platforms seem to get tired of downvoting people that don’t subside to their pressure. And tying back to the tip, while I struggle to think of a specific use case for that, I’ve seen other highly specific ideas before that, for their use cases, were quite good, so I imagine yours can be useful too, specially with the text body’s tone, and thus I don’t think it’s worth stressing over people trying to cause a silence spiral on yet another social media.
I can conjecture some things, though I can’t be 100% sure on either:
First, maybe it’s fanatics/fanboys that don’t like competition making their platform less relevant. Second, it’s paid actors complaining. Third, it’s robot accounts making posts. Fourth, as proposed in the OP, people are getting the wrong impression due to noisy and problematic bubbles. Fifth, people being scared of leaving their comfort zone. Sixth, a mix of either some or all the previous possibilities.