DIY videos are my primary concern on this as well. It is also why browser extensions don't help me too much because my use case is usually in the garage, half way through a project having issues, on my phone furiously trying to get a solution to the problem I'm having.

I had this exact scenario yesterday trying to remove rounded/stripped lug nuts off my wheels. It would've been very helpful to be able to see if the video I was watching had 1000 likes but 6000 dislikes to know if what I was about to do was advisable or not. Yes, I read the comments and it ended up being a simple fix with the right tools, but the like/dislike ratio is a great way to filter dangerous/dumb/unhelpful videos.

Isn't YouTube already pushing down the bad-ratio videos, though? I know it's not the same as you being able to filter the counts yourself... but the data is being used to try to hide crap.

But YouTube is already using the dislikes to push content down, it's just not showing you the count (nor does it show you the many-other engagement signals it uses for its rankings and recommendations).

Personally, I see the removal of visible dislikes as a net positive. They were used to rain down negativity and meanness on well-intentioned videos. I think YouTube is now a happier place when a kid's crappy singing video gets quietly ranked down, versus being shown to have 34 classmates (or 34,000 strangers) that hated it.

same experience trying to find videos that answer a technical question - there's no immediate gauge on whether or not the video's useful, and it's easy (and often automatic on YouTube's part) to hide any comments with a negative sentiment

Sure, we all got fucked by that but just think of the political porn addicts who now get to have their feelings protected. Ensuring the integrity of their ideological bubbles is much more important than preventing videos with dangerous instructions in them from being promoted.

Comments and general channel credibility. If channel deletes comments or is often misleading people will likely catch on and avoid.

...how can you tell if a channel deletes comments?

YouTube still uses dislikes to keep those out of your stream.

>Dislikes are a great way for the community to clean house.

That's precisely why it was removed. Can't let the rabble have a voice. They might think the wrong things.