Abstaining means "I don't care", not "I feel uncomfortable with this
change".
I'm going to disagree with you here, specifically with regards to the "I don't care" piece. From my time in FESCo, and as the FPL before that -- I can never remember a time when someone abstained because they didn't care. I remember people abstaining because they didn't feel it was appropriate for them to vote on their own ticket, or they felt uncomfortable for whatever reason, but never simply because they didn't care.
Please remember that FESCo members can vote either "+1" or "0" or "-1" for a particular change. I would think voting "0" would be more appropriate for a "I don't care" vote. But I still don't see an "I don't care" vote as a reason to abstain.