This won't work on people like me who may look at the star rating but have no desire to read user reviews. You'll just be a one-star place and I'll dismiss you out of hand..
You're missing the point. With all one star reviews in a crowded field like restaurants most folks will never see your reviews on Yelp. They don't care if you don't find them they're doing just fine without Yelp's "help".
but with all the publicity surrounding their actions, will they become more well known which will in fact counteract their star rating on Yelp? My guess is yes.
I think there's also an appeal to certain types of businesses like restaurants when they don't act like corporate profit-maximizers.
Your loss then, no? If you dismiss them out of hand, you're losing out on the chance to visit them and eat there (and enjoy a good meal). Clearly a lot of people like them, and they're not suffering for business because of dismissals like yours, and, in fact, they're saying they want to avoid getting people who like Yelp and trust Yelp reviews, so the only one who seems to lose in this scenario is you...?
So I should try all the one star places in case they're actually pretty good? Seems to me I'd be better off sticking to highly recommended places, if the false positive rate is small enough. The false negative rate is obviously not great but it's far less of a concern.