I don't really think Hive is ever strict or lenient at any given time. It's more about communities and big curators and how they are changing their rules and pattern.
At some point on Hive, AI generated stuff was frowned upon. Now, almost everyone uses AI generated images and I don't see a lot of people making a case about it.
However, once in a while, when there is a war between whales, it can come like this;
I may have a beef with you. So, you go and Downvotes posts that I upvoted. In the same manner, I downvote posts that got upvotes from you. Haha.
It's nasty and childish. However, this is why you can't really Appeal Downvotes. People say "It's part of the system" and they say "you didn't complain about upvotes. Why complain about Downvotes?".
It's funny though because when things happen like that, those that suffer the hit are the small accounts who are caught in the crossfire of those downvote wars. So, someone can get Downvotes for doing nothing wrong and you can't even complain. Why? Because it's a Blockchain and there is "no central body that exerts control". Lol. Maybe that's what we want to believe shaa
The summary of it all is; people get into trouble and people get $0.5 on posts even when they do nothing wrong and they have quality post that only exists on Hive. However, if you are going to get Downvoted, it's better to get it for doing nothing wrong than for doing something you believe to be wrong. Haha.