What I would like to see is an icon that would appear on the main thread which would indicate that a really great answer is in this thread even though the question itself did not merit (or receive) any votes. Many times in drilling down through all the responses I find buried deep an answer or explanation that really explains a concept or principle to a tremendous level, usually by one of our premier, 5 star posters.
Perhaps just changing the color of the Thumbs up Icon to maybe red or violet. Something that will say "This thread has got some really good stuff in it!"

Hal