The thanks system does have a political party feeling about it at times. If you want to make thanks even worse in that direction, add no thanks.

I thought the real point of the Thanks system was to cut down on posts that said "I agree!" or "Great point!" and still let the thanker express approval.

The natural tendency of needlessly abandoning the ITT site was to drive away clueless newbies and keep people closely associated with developers and hobbyists. That has succeeded, and there are really a lot fewer objectionable posts than there used to be, so there is less of a problem. Group unity has been reinforced, but influence over the clueless, who are the primary people one wants to sell the N900 to (because there are so many of them), is less.

So the changes have worked, and those who wanted them should be happy. There is no big reason for tightening things up further.