With this move I expect non-positive comments days to be numbered. Any feature that doesn't align with brand positivity is fair game to be removed.

Big assumption, have you run the data? I doubt it would be a good proxy.

Make a video on a taboo topic. During the first wave you end up with tribal zealot commenting and liking with low/medium viewership.

This pushes the video in the mainstream which causes more views but smaller likes counts. The top comments increase with flamewars in the comments.

Without the dislike the popularity could be negative.