I agree; there's a big difference between +0/-15 and +10/-25 (or +100/-115). Controversial is not the same as uniformly rejected. Sometimes the controversy might not even be about the question itself but rather about other intertwined issues.

In a related question Shog declined a request to turn off the Roomba entirely on child metas, arguing that somebody should have written a supporting answer (that gets upvotes) to prevent the deletion. That's a workaround, but it seems like unnecessary gymnastics to me and, worse, it runs counter to how we usually do feature requests. Specifically, we expect the FR to make a case in the question, and "yes I agree" answers aren't useful. If we move the "payload" on FRs into answers, then the question itself becomes weak and that will lead to more downvotes!

A pile of upvotes demonstrates (some) support; that should factor in.

I agree; there's a big difference between +0/-15 and +10/-25 (or +100/-101). Controversial is not the same as uniformly rejected. Sometimes the controversy might not even be about the question itself but rather about other intertwined issues.

In a related question, Shog declined a request to turn off the Roomba entirely on child metas, arguing that somebody should have written a supporting answer (that gets upvotes) to prevent the deletion. That's a workaround, but it seems like unnecessary gymnastics to me and, worse, it runs counter to how we usually do feature requests. Specifically, we expect the FR to make a case in the question, and "yes I agree" answers aren't useful. If we move the "payload" on FRs into answers, then the question itself becomes weak and that will lead to more downvotes!

A pile of upvotes demonstrates (some) support; that should factor in.