Youtube will hide dislike counts under all videos

[VADemon]

A couple days ago, Youtube announced it will remove the dislike counts under videos, citing few reasons (or excuses). You can listen to the announcement video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxOuG8jMIgI [3:02]
In December they'll also restrict API access to dislike counts, with special treatment of select applicants (source: email).

Today, co-founder of Youtube, Jawed Karim commented under that video criticising the change:

Matt doesn't look excited because he knows it's the wrong decision.

Moreover, after 16 years of inactivity he changed the description of the famous first ever public video on Youtube "Me at the zoo" now featuring these lines (if memory serves me right, it never had a description):

When every YouTuber agrees that removing dislikes is a stupid idea, it probably is. Try again, YouTube 🤦‍♂️

Note: The commenter "A K" is not entirely wrong. Jawed's comment was near the very top shortly after posting. Now 3 hours in, it's hidden quite deep under "more comments". Had I not known of its existance, I'd not have found it again.

I totally disagree with the removal of dislike counts. Now whether you like it or not, but the trend started with Justin Bieber's "Baby" in 2010 and it was hilarious for those participating in the culture at the time. Though soon this entire list will be historical: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-disliked_YouTube_videos Last but not least the curious case of sympathy with the official White House channel.
No, the actual reasons for me as a viewer are practical. Once you step outside of your subscription list (something YT too tries to abolish), like searching for a video to resolve a problem - the like/dislike ratio becomes a very helpful tool to not waste your time on absolute dumpster fire of poor/spam videos. Many desktop users have been using browser extensions to display that ratio under thumbnails.
Google's sole motive is probably their 'engagement' or viewing duration metric. To me its wasted time spent on an unhelpful/misleading video, to them it's monetizable time when they can insert more adverts. If it is about nicer human interaction for them... well comments are still there by default. People are people and hiding the dislike button will not remove negative commentary per se.

The channel owners always have had these options:

1. Disable likes & dislikes
2. Disable comments

Instead of adding another option to that list (only disable dislikes), Youtube made it mandatory for all. They must've really wanted it not to be optional.
What do you think?

[mouser]

At first I didn't give it a second thought, but I think you have a good point that I can't see why they didn't simply add it to the options available to the owner of the channel.
I'm sure there are some good reasons to hide it at least some of the time -- like if it encourages people to be trolls and doesn't serve a useful function -- but I haven't seen any discussion of these reasons, nor would I be inclined to believe the explanations.  Whatever the real reasoning is for removing them, you can bet that they have everything to do with the profitability of YouTube and very little to do with making things better for the viewer, except to the extent that these things happen to overlap.

[Deozaan]

It's the same old story. Petty tyrants who cannot abide dissent also can't abide the idea that others are aware that any dissent exists.

Take a look at the #1 top disliked video on YouTube (and see #6, too). Then consider how many other powerful and well-funded organizations have posted videos announcing some new program or policy that met with widespread disapproval from "the unwashed masses."

[ibay770]

This extension will fix that.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/return-youtube-dislike/gebbhagfogifgggkldgodflihgfeippi