I attended a conference a few years back where a lead ML/data scientist at a big company you’ve heard of and probably use said the dislike button was ignored in favor of this: did you watch and engage with the content.
My only question then is: how do I know if I dislike a video if I haven't watched it? Sometimes I can leave a video early, but others I will have to watch for a bit before realizing it is a waste of time. This is more pronounced with Shorts due to the duration of videos. I will end up watching something that is 20 seconds long to see what it was about (you never know when you will find a gem), but then dislike it once it is finished. YouTube just keeps recommending low quality garbage until I get fed up with it and spam "Do not recommend channel" the moment a video shows up.