[oooooooooooow]

You have always been able to hide the like/dislike count on your published videos.

Let's not be stupid about this. The only people benefitting from this change are the shady ones.

[Jensson]

They do it so the likes can be displayed while hiding the dislikes. This encourages controversial videos, which is good for youtube since "all engagement is good engagement".

[cinntaile]

Controversial videos aren't necessarily shady.