All apps have a recurring cost if the dev is continuing to develop the app. At the scale these apps are working the labor the dev puts in in the most expensive part. Plus Lemmy is continually updating so to keep the app working the dev will need to continually update.

Also, it’s possible for my upvotes and down votes to be collected but hidden much like it is on reddit.

That’s true for one single instance. But I’d think it’d be harder for your non home instances to track your votes without them being exposed in some way. Right?

Certified? So they collect signatures? No thanks

I don’t mean this in a sort of “gotcha” way, but why shouldn’t those things be public on this sort of platform? That seems like the bare minimum for a community to prosper