Dislike is to feel dislike for. Disagree is to make an assertion that is contrary to made by another. So yeah, playing semantics disagree is less emotional than dislike. There is overlap, but there is a fundamental distinction in their definitions.
Language isn't that rigid. I mean, just think about it. If someone disagrees with a suggestion you make, does that mean they like your suggestion? No, that means they dislike it, obviously. On the other hand, if someone disagrees with your suggestion, that doesn't mean they dislike
you personally. That's the key difference.
You're mostly correct. Youtube only hides thumbs down from the public unless you install some chrome extension that can show the thumbs down. But the creator does see the thumbs down.
Which is totally different than on MR. Obviously MR doesn't have to copy YT or vice versa, but I was just making the point that it's not some gospel principle that everyone browsing a forum needs to see how many dislikes a comment has for the forum to be ideal. IMO, it really wouldn't affect the dynamic of the forum if they removed that reaction (and the "angry" one) altogether. As I said earlier, there's not really a negative equivalent to the "+1" type cluttering comments (that the "like/agree" emoji takes care of) for the "dislike/disagree" emoji to be used for. At least, I don't think I've ever seen someone simply type "-1" or "disagreed" or "^not this" without further commentary. It seems the affirmative posts are far more common.
In my opinion, can't have it both ways. Either claim to support that reactions should be followed by rational thoughts or claim to support they don't. Makes no sense (at least to me) to have it any other way. As in the case of liking a baseless, negative, generalized statement. I suppose we'll go round and round on this, but MR won't ever implement such a suggestion. The workload on the mods as well the parsing of the comments would bring to a halt any real (such as spam, insults and like) moderation.
Again, when's the last time you wished someone explained why they liked your post? I'm guessing never (because you can safely assume they like it for the same reason you do, lol). When's the last time you wish someone had explained why they
disliked your post. Probably frequently. In fact, if you're like me, it's nearly all the time. This is my point. They aren't the same thing. It's the same principle why people are more likely to click on a negative headline than a positive one. People are naturally curious why people are at odds, but not so much about when people are in agreement.
I'm not suggesting MR appoint a task force to actively enforce the rule any more than they do any other rule, but the rule would be in place so if a comment is reported, they could do something about it.
I think more than enough has been said about this, so this will be my final comment about the matter.