This metric isn't meant for a bot, it's meant for people to use common sense on.

If I see a covid related news story, I'll just ignore the like/discount ratio. But if I see a tech tutorial or conference talk with 50% like/dislike, I'll be fairly confident that the video isn't worth my time.

Imagine the number of dead PCs if that Verge video hadn't been riddled with dislikes.

It’s pretty telling for some types of content and not so much for others. I’m more then capable of using it where it matters and understanding why some content might be massively downvotes (but then still often find it informative)

> many news videos related to Covid are heavily downvoted. Does that mean that they're bad coverage?

It does mean for sure many people don't agree with them.

> or that people don't like to hear what the news has to say?

ironic...