[zaroth]

Very consistently I’ve found engaging with replies to your own comment will get the original (even high ranking comment) downvoted.

It could be just a reflexive thing to seeing a given username show up too often. I wouldn’t presume it was any deeper than that.

[goldcd]

I think it's more than that.

In my OP I very deliberately stuck to abstracts that I'd hoped "nobody could disagree with".

And nobody seemed to - until I put more words beneath it.

You're right though - engaging with your own posts is perceived as negative. People read the platitude and hit 'like' - the more you put beneath it, the greater the opportunity for something to annoy somebody (and scroll up to try to kill the thread)