I've disagreed with this when Youtube made the dislike change and I'll disagree with it now.
Upvotes/downvotes may not be needed in opinion pieces, but they are pretty necessary for any educational/scientific/news/tutorial etc. content to filter out the factually wrong answers so removing those will inevitably lead to misinformation being spread around. So in that context, an upvote/downvote system actually adds value.
It may be toxic in some instances, but there's really no better simple alternative (the only one I can think of would be extreme moderation, but that's a whole other can of worms).
I've disagreed with this when Youtube made the dislike change and I'll disagree with it now.
Upvotes/downvotes may not be needed in opinion pieces, but they are pretty necessary for any educational/scientific/news/tutorial etc. content to filter out the factually wrong answers so removing those will inevitably lead to misinformation being spread around. So in that context, an upvote/downvote system actually adds value.
It may be toxic in some instances, but there's really no better simple alternative (the only one I can think of would be extreme moderation, but that's a whole other can of worms).