[tauntz]

I do agree with you! Repair guides (and similar how-to's) are one of the genres where the dislikes are actually an indication of the quality of the content.

I'm just making an assumption that most of Youtube content that's consumed, is in genres where the dislikes are more a signal of "I don't agree with you/your political view/taste of music/etc". I hope I'm wrong.

[jonnycomputer]

Dislike buttons in special interest topics are probably a more informative signal than they are otherwise, but I've never personally spent much time looking at the likes one way or the other. Comments are usually much more informative. E.g. "these instructions for the EG1772Z worked for my EG1781T, except that I had to pry off the plastic plate that hides the access bolt first." or "Ok video, but if he had done X first, he could have finished with half the trouble." or "Be careful prying the case loose. I broke the plastic tabs with my screw driver."