Burning coins can be an important feature of a token. In theory burning coins is a way to distribute funds to all of the holders of a token.

Reducing the float can increase the price.

Of course the actual effect of a burn is determined by the form of the burn. A program that buys and burns the coin will benefit the whole community.

The upvote burn diverts funds that would go to authors.

In reality I don't know that enough gets burned to really make a difference.

The reason I tallied up the alt-coins for the BuildAWhale burn was because I wanted to see the total impact after several weeks of posts.

The effort burned $1200 HBD.

I looked at the account with the different tribal sites. I was really sad to see that the burn was minuscule. The data reflects the alt-coins of the accounts the upvoted the burn.

Burn posts certainly don't hurt anything.

For the most part I agree. However, a primary reason for the low user retention is that new accounts have a hard time getting upvotes. HIVE needs to retain its creators to keep the platform vibrant.