There is a miscommunication /somewhere/ about what the motivation for high rep users is.

Even in this exchange there is someone who stated that people get points for closing posts (that's wrong).

With that set of preconceptions about how Stack Overflow works, the "someone down voted me" and "someone closed my question" become attacks on the person meant to increase the points of the other person.

The actions of curation aren't intended to be unwelcoming - but when held in the "all actions on my posts are judgements about me" it becomes a question of "can this be solved?"

One of the things that is disappointing is that someone who can speak with the voice of Stack Overflow corporate isn't actively pursuing social media (HN, Reddit, etc...) and helping to correct these misperceptions.