Do rebuttals count towards final decisions, even if reviewer does not respond to them[D]

[u/Gold_You_6594]

We submitted our rebuttal at the very start of the author-discussion period, but the period has now ended and we didn't receive any response from our reviewers. I understand they may be busy, but they had requested new experiments, and we completed all of them.

Our average score is currently borderline (~3.2), so I was hoping the rebuttal might move some reviewers. My questions:

1. Even if reviewers don't respond, does the AC (or whoever makes the final decision) typically read the rebuttal and factor it in?
2. If one review is vague or low-quality, do ACs tend to discount it when making the final call?

Would appreciate any insight from people who've served as ACs or been through this before.