Ernest will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he's also said he'd prefer to leave aps to those for whome it is a core strength.
I think he knows it's something the community would like, so I think the post you link above was in reaction to Artimis unfortunately going offline and the App (for now) dieing with it (since nobody seems able to contact the developer). I suspect it's something Ernest will progress 'in his free time' if no other apps which live up to his ambitions are developed first!
A key difference here is we can see who downvoted which I think makes people more cautious to downvote. I guess Lemmy users aren't used to that however (but it might change their behaviour when they realise we can see!)