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Regarding the YT dislikes, the reason it's still available in the API isn't some sort of oversight by the developers - the rollout is most likely A/B tested and once the test completes they'll remove it from the API completely or hardcode it to a static value (for backwards-compatibility with older clients).

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In general, Google doesn't make immediate API changes. That's hard on API users.

This is changing. YT has become more aware of archivists saving removed content in the past, and much more quickly lock things down nowadays. Pre-2017 unlisted videos were gone within days, and the community tab cut off within hours. Gone are the days of “removed” features sticking around in APIs for months. :(

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