The upvotes are aggregated (and I believe weighted for new accounts) it’s not being ignored, just factored into a larger algorithm.

I’m also happy to see I’m not the only one who is liberally using the upvote button. I probably upvote one or two dozen comments out of every hundred I read. HN is a forum full of good well thought out input that I want to reward!

I’ve certainly never seen any indication that it’s “not ok” to like heaps of comments or stories.