[cmdshiftf4]

Why are karma / votes even necessary?

Surely the popularity of content could be purely determined by the actual amount of clicks a given article/topic is given in a certain amount of time?

[cryptoz]

What's the difference between a click and an upvote then? It can still be gamed as easily (maybe even easier).

Also, it has a major problem: if users know that popularity is based on clicks, then they can't click on anything they might disagree with (to simply learn more about it) without amplifying the signal as well. The incentives of user behavior are changed in to a self-censorship of what the user allows themselves to read, likely enforcing bubbles even more.