Many years ago YouTube got rid of rating, and replaced with like/dislike, because thinking about rating was too much of a burden for people to engage. We could scoff at this as dumbing-down, but there will have been substantial testing involved. Even now, the view to like ratio on a YouTube video is only about 4%.

I'd caution against adding extra complexity that most likely the vast majority of people won't care to understand or use, that will detract from the project being perceived as simple and streamlined.
I'd also caution against making a publishing tool that goes against the grain of what the established norms are on websites.

If we were to do something, implementing "reactions" is much more in line with the way things have gone. It's simple, expressive, and well understood.

You make a good point. I agree with reactions.