If people understand them to mean agreement or disagreement, that's the message they'll recieve regardless of whether it was the message that you were trying to send.

I guess if I wanna convey I appreciate someone's contribution even though I don't share their perspective I can always leave a comment; that seems like something I'd appreciate seeing in my inbox so maybe it's worthwhile for me to make that a habit

[–] HereIAm@lemmy.world 5 points 4 weeks ago

Yeah that's something I do sometimes as well. I usually just don't vote on a comment as a third option for when I disagree with them, but don't want to punish having a different viewpoint ^^