Hive was born as a cry for freedom, for decentralization. It's a fork of Steem to get rid of Justin Sun and the Tron corporation.
Quality posts are sought after, and authors hope to be rewarded with upvotes.
The number of votes or their value is not an indicator of quality.
Many votes are cast out of friendship, charity, or simply because people want to support the recipient. Some upvotes are only given because the post became trending.
In fact, the vast majority of downvotes demonstrate poor moderation.