> How about just making the option more apparent as your posting a video?
Of course, the option will still have a default setting even with that modification. That doesn't change anything. I'll say again; in an amortized platform level, only default option matters. Other "choice" won't make any dent. One counterfactual scenario: YT decided to make # of dislike visible only for creators who opts in and now 99.999% of videos don't show it. If you're 100% happy with that situation, then I can respect your opinion.
> Why should everyone be deprived of a feature just because some people don't know another feature exists?
It's not because some people don't know some feature exists. It's because the platform is the one who make the overall incentive structure for user behaviors. YT completely failed in this area and now they're trying to fix that. Of course you have your right to complain, but to me the trade-off seems obvious given that creators have been being harassed for years while you have a minor inconvenience.
> And now you just admitted you don't think it's just because people don't know that option exists
Where does this baffling logical jump come from? In many studies, dislike buttons have been proven to be a strong source of negative user behaviors, so it's a fairly natural conjecture that YT is trying to get rid of that button in the end state. And the fact that most users don't really know or care about the visible dislike # options simply refutes "but they had a choice and it's their choice!" argument. I don't know what you're trying to achieve by connecting two logically unrelated sentences. Isn't this a textbook example of straw man fallacy?
> I honestly don't know what you're position is besides that whatever Google does must be right.
Obviously this is something I would expect from HN comments, but outside of HN please don't make this kind of low level mockery on someone else you don't really know. It only makes you miserable, especially when you demonstratively don't understand my arguments.