"Likes" Enhancement

[JEMC]

potato_hamster said:

JEMC said:

And thus making it pointless to a point where there is no reason to keep it like you want? Sorry, but that's not going to happen.

Woah, hey hold up now. I keep being told the like system is completely innocuous. I keep being told that it in no way indicates the correctness or popularity of a post. I keep being told it will not affect how conversations are had on this site. How can all of that be true, but yet the removal of the public display of the number of likes would make the system "pointless"?

Tell me this, if removing the public display of the number of likes makes the like system "pointless", what is the point in displaying the number of likes?

It makes it pointless because it removes any meaning to it. What would be the point of introducing a like system only to make it invisible?