Like counts, be it likes alone or Reddit-style with downvotes, is the wrong mechanic for community-generated content, as it incentivises posting something "for a quick like". As explained in my other reply, Slashdot has a really healthy, decade-old community without having like counts. Posts are ranked by comment count and if there is something really bad, users can report it. It's that easy and it works.

Wouldn't comment counts incentivize controversy-inducing content instead?

That's how I feel about it, it's essentially the way stuff is incentivized on 4chan, and we all know that community isn't really know for its high quality, friendly discourse...