I don’t mind if they are or aren’t either way, but it doesn’t make sense to tear down discord for essentially the same thing if you’re ok with Lemmy doing it. Whether they should or shouldn’t is another question. Also, it’s possible for my upvotes and down votes to be collected but hidden much like it is on reddit.

You say that, but I see no evidence that Lemmy is a good place for privacy either, yet here you are. I know upvotes and down votes are public and I know that your post are freely shared and stored across the fediverse.