Did you read what he said? He said that if there were a like button (I’m ok without it but I see the value), you could scroll the thread titles and see in a flash which ones were popular or controversial. You can always still read the whole thread. But a lot of people freep between activities and want to get a faster “gist” of what’s going on.
It isn’t that people would ONLY hit like instead of forming intelligent posts. It would be an additional tool.
You've been around how long?
Popular and/or controversial posts tend to attract comments. Even a NOOB like me knows you can get that information from the posts page. For instance on this topic it says (note information in BOLD in case it has been missed for the entirety of your time here):
Message to Jim Robinson
12/19/2016, 1:19:57 PM · by Yollopoliuhqui · 191 replies
Standard Version Illumination | 12/19/2016 | Yollopoliuhqui
You want the LIKE button follow the link at #191...
Gosh, no, Yaelle; I'm functionally illiterate and never make any cogent replies.
You can already do that by looking at the thread titles and seeing which ones have a number of posts.
A thread that has been up for an hour and has one post is likely not popular or controversial.
One that has been up for five minutes and has nine posts probably is.
But why would you care anyway? Read what interests you.