Downvoting is a legitimate way to disagree when you don't have time or anything useful to say. It's not true that it was intended only for the cases you describe. This is one of those debates (like the decline of HN relative to Reddit) that will never go away despite the fact that it is settled.

That said, I think it's pretty foolish to downvote Anechoic's argument, which is cogent and grounded in historical fact. I don't see how anyone can argue against the role of the public sector in creating major technological infrastructure on a bloody internet forum.