This was my first thought as well. There have been several occasions (News content and Youtube Rewinds comes to mind) where youtube actively suppresses or promo

This was my first thought as well. There have been several occasions (News content and Youtube Rewinds comes to mind) where youtube actively suppresses or promotes content in-line with it or its advertiser's interests, and hides anything with a countervailing sentiments. The like ratio in conjunction with the view count has always been a good signalling mechanism for the purposes of identifying these instances.