-1 reputation for downvoting. How does it work?

Question

We know that when you downvote a post, you lose 1 reputation. This makes sense because you don't want people randomly downvoting questions without a strong reason behind it. But I have a few doubts and if what I think is right, then a few suggestions.

When a downvoted post is found to get closed, reaches so many downvotes that it becomes shaded in white, or deleted by the one who posted it, you will gain back your 1 reputation. If not, wouldn't it make sense that way that the lost reputation is regained for raising a 'good' downvote and not a bad one? And maybe you can even receive +1 reputation if this happens?

Well, maybe 1 reputation is a very small amount to even care about, but still, this is just a doubt I had.

Edit: I'm not able to attach Images in comments, So ill edit the Question. @Tim ,

Answer 1

You only need to 'pay' 1 reputation for downvoting an answer, not for downvoting a question. This is mostly to prevent users from downvoting competing answers, making their own answers on the same question rise to the top where they get more attention: What is FGITW and SCITE? More information can also be found here: Why is downvoting a question free but downvoting an answer not?

Note that whenever an answer you downvoted is deleted, which often happens with very low quality posts, you'll get the reputation from your downvote back. So there is already some mechanism in place to return that reputation. Other than that, a single upvote on one of your posts already compensates for giving 10 downvotes, so as you said, it's only a small amount you shouldn't be worrying about too much.

Answer 2

I would be happy for a dv to cost 5 rep. The cost is so small, there must be some who use it with little thought. There's something in the adage that if something costs very little, it implies it has little value.

With a larger cost to the dv-er, it would attach more importance to the action, one would hope. Preventing users dv-ing other answers? Even more effective!