by "silent assent", i mean some way to acknowledge a post or comment as Good without making another publicly-visible post or comment. pretty much every other platform has visible like counters, and so appreciation for posts can be expressed in aggregate; 100 000 likes is popular, 1 000 is pretty impressive, 1 is relatively unknown or unimportant
i know a lot of people left for cohost to avoid the sort of numbers game that this creates—every post a millionaire, or you don't deserve love1—but sometimes being a statistic is nice
that and a full-size repost or comment [and i say "full-size" because site culture seems to encourage/expect long-form and high-effort posts] feels like taking a sledgehammer to a nail, and reads as rude and intrusive in my head
1 you don't deserve it regardless. hope this helps