One possible solution would be to edit the article, add “[Deleted]” to the title, remove all text and replace it by an explanation like: “The article was deleted because it received a lot of downvotes, but the discussion seems worth keeping; please don’t vote on the article anymore.”
I don’t think it worth saying that you remove something because downvotes as the only reason. Either you think that people who disagree have a point or you stand by what you wrote in the past.
One possible solution would be to edit the article, add “[Deleted]” to the title, remove all text and replace it by an explanation like: “The article was deleted because it received a lot of downvotes, but the discussion seems worth keeping; please don’t vote on the article anymore.”
Do that without removing the actual text.
I don’t think it worth saying that you remove something because downvotes as the only reason. Either you think that people who disagree have a point or you stand by what you wrote in the past.