In this case, google translate did a very nice job. I am still not sure whether he is determined and confident (that he pour down resources to make that happen) or he simply wants to tell us what we want to hear.

The anecdote you provided is one of the best examples that supports pro downvotes. I believe that almost everyone agrees that spam, criminal activity, extreme self vot should be regulated.

Personally, I do not expect downvote feature to be removed, and would like to push to the direction where if someone downvotes, he should state the reason. This will likely reduce downvotes and in particular, will make auto-downvotes and downvote trails difficult.