Well, except that like counts alone don't make it so that "everyone will know" you support a given comment or cause. This site, for instance, used to have like

Well, except that like counts alone don't make it so that "everyone will know" you support a given comment or cause. This site, for instance, used to have like counts, but you could not see who liked (or disliked) a given post or comment. You could only see the number. I personally liked it that way, although I understand why the site admins decided to do away with the visible # of likes for comments.