You can mark a video as not to influence your recommendations or delete it from your YouTube history.
New prank on someone that left their laptop unlocked. Open YouTube to something they hate and then close it before they get back.
But at least you still have that ability compared to most platforms.
I haven't paid close attention to the effects, because I don't thumbs down too many videos. But it did feel like I generally don't get that channel as much after thumbing down a video from my recommended feed.