If you put it on a single, easily recognizable, easily accessible page (all new features, etc.), then many users will find it. You can even give a notification when a new feature is added (as long as kept to a reasonable amount).

Features that will go viral are worth adding for all, features that did not can be kept there.

You overestimate what people will understand from a technical description in a configuration option. Even if they were experimentally inclined, which most people are not, they probably wouldn't even notice the effect, particularly if not a new user. Twitter is a black box for most users.

Twitter very likely did market research on its effectiveness for the target market they were trying to please. Probably that's just not you.

i can see no way to opt out of it either

Use Tweetdeck instead of the main page.

https://tweetdeck.twitter.com

You can click the "I don't like this tweet" button in the dropdown.

that's not opting out of the feature, that's trying to train the feature to be better.