It actually makes perfect sense considering YouTube's business model of advertising and "engagement". While advertising-based business models are ultimately al

It actually makes perfect sense considering YouTube's business model of advertising and "engagement". While advertising-based business models are ultimately always at odds with the user, they can (and have successfully) coexisted in the past - a product can have a certain amount of advertising/user-hostility and still remain usable. That's what YouTube used to be until now - they had to keep the advertising/user-hostility somewhat tame in order to keep growing their marketshare. The problem is that in a monopolized vertical, there is nothing preventing the product from going "all-in" on advertising and we're now seeing the late/terminal stages of this cancer in action. Removing dislikes and having people watch videos that are known to be bad still counts as "engagement", especially if people have to waste time watching the video fully before realizing it is bad. Even better, if they end up doing so and then have to try a different video then it's even more engagement. The nasty side-effects of this change (up to life-threatening consequences in case of DIY videos for example) aren't their concern nor liability.