They simply want to police it better to suit their agenda

I would like the option to make it public on my community. I have asked people not to downvote amateur bakers for just trying to improve their skills but some assholes don't listen.

That'd be nice.

Sure, but I think we can go further.

Filter the votes I see based on which users or instances I've blocked. I've blocked them for a reason.

There are merits for it and against it. My biggest concerns would be privacy regarding data scrapers .

Regarding poor behavior, I really think that ultimately comes down to moderation on the platform. I've only had a few poor experiences but I am also someone who sometimes sees certain threads as dumpster fires and refrains from joining in or refrains from responding when I feel there isn't any form of discussion or chatter to be had. I can understand that it likely happens more often than not but I also believe that moderation is the only reasonable way of curbing it. Moderation teams have to make it clear that the behavior is not welcome and that it will be dealt with.