I can easily see both sides of this, especially after reading the other threads. Oly's point about subliminal feedback in normal conversation is interesting, although I'm not sure that would directly translate over to something like an inline forum, which isn't happening in realtime the way an in-person conversation is. I find myself resonating with Endlessness's comments. Lately I've been working the Instagram thing, and I see how people get sucked into the numbers game part of it. And I don't think this is healthy, as it glosses over the richness of the life experience and reduces it to a numerical rating.
One of the reasons this is probably not appropriate for the Nexus is that we are doing something different here. Among other things, you could almost think of the forum as a support group for people who are trying to get some control over their egos. So in that sense, having anything here that encourages ratings-type thinking is almost akin to having a wine bar at an AA meeting house.
The thing about making a post where you quote or otherwise directly thank another member is that you are taking the time to go out of your way and do that, which is part of what makes it meaningful.