One mechanism covering both "I agree"/"your post made me feel good" and "factual information"/"contributes to the conversation" means neither one is represented

One mechanism covering both "I agree"/"your post made me feel good" and "factual information"/"contributes to the conversation" means neither one is represented well, and because most people are driven mostly by emotion, the signal you get is basically "how many people did this post make feel good"/"how many people did this post make feel bad". This is not specific to politics, despite your framing. This happens all of the time on HN with technical topics, too.