You're kind of suggesting people go in reverse. Ratings were the initial way these things worked but then they moved to more implicit signals. Netflix used to be all about star ratings back in the day; now they want to measure what you're actually watching.
I think the issue of a system determining whether you like the steampunk genre vs the quality of only that particular steampunk video is separate from the issue of ratings.
But also view-time or view-count don't tell the full story of how much you liked that video.
I am not happy with YT recommendations because they suggest crap videos to me and not the finest one available for that topic, just as he said.
The system should rather suggest me a different topic but with the best quality/content available, rather than a super similar video with crappier quality/content.
I think the issue of a system determining whether you like the steampunk genre vs the quality of only that particular steampunk video is separate from the issue of ratings.