They need to stop showing people the upvote and view COUNTS. Behind the scenes they can still use it to make recommendations.
Those numbers are pseudo signals of quality to people who encounter content they have never encountered before.
Even when they have doubts that are watching something unhealthy the mind goes "well if the rest of the world thinks this dumbass is important I better pay attention..."
If a dumbass hurting people on video gets 10 million views other dumbasses worldwide automatically get triggered looking at the count. "hey I can do this maybe I should run for President..."
Remove the counts and you remove the pseudo signal of quality.
I want to see the counts. I feel it is far more transparent to see the counts than for things to just be surfaced or not opaquely. Youtube is not a discussion site and it does not work as one. How popular things are is a part of the context of pop culture, and most youtube content is pop culture.
I can't think of any traditional medium that tells you the popularity of something before you consume it. Movie theaters, TV stations, radio stations, etc. have no concept of "view counts" telling you whether or not to consume something.
View counts ~= box office take ~= TV ratings ~= Billboard.
Every type of media you list has gatekeepers, kingmakers, and counters, and other things influencing your to or not to consume.