The part that disappoints me the most is that it seems they gave away their votes for free

I believe they did this with the Laken Riley Act as well.

I'm not here for the showmanship. I don't care that they set up in front of the USAID building and yell "FIGHT!" into the ether. I don't care about the walking out at the Joint Address to Congress. I don't care about Rep. Al Green waving his cane to Trump. What I care about is using the little real power or leverage they have when it counts... and the vote for the CR was one of those times where it counted. We are in preservation mode and it doesn't seem like we're preserving anything.

My #1 rule is DO. NOT. GIVE. YOUR. VOTE. AWAY. FOR. FREE!

Even if it's a small and seemingly insignificant change, do not give your vote away and get nothing in return for it.

The headline in Chuck Schumer's op-ed is that Trump would love a shutdown. Trump would also love to look like he can competently govern, and avoiding a shutdown does exactly that. Chuck Schumer tries to paint a picture wherein Trump wins whether there was a shutdown or not. I would have liked to test that theory when they had actual leverage.