[Mom]

I'm not trying to convince you guys it's good, just merely pushing out food for thought.

Here's an example:
A while back, a member came to me after writing a dozen or so tutorials. People saw the tutorials, but they were relatively advanced and he received few responses. This led him to believe that he wasn't valued or that his posts weren't welcome here. It was, in fact, quite the contrary. Plenty of people read his threads, but due to how advanced they were, he never received any feedback. He ended up deleting all his tutorials and leaving the forum, despite the apology I gave him.

My idea is that the thanks system might help in situations like these. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm only considering it at the moment.

I honestly feel like that's a bit of a special case.
Maybe it's just me, but deleting all traces of what you've done due to lack of instant gratification seems rash. Plus, a thank system has a chance of missing the point entirely.
Thanking someone is just "Thanks". It's not feedback.
I just see a bunch of "Thanks" pressed by buttons as much less valuable than an actual post. And to crown it all, you'd have to be careful since it'd be very easy for some to just go in PM's and trade thanks to be able to boost the value of their post.