They are flawed because they are so addictive. They seem like a currency you just have to obtain, and they can sway the public opinion by subconsciously making people believe that the post/comment with the most likes in an argument is by default the one with the most correct opinion. I’m not kidding. We all know it to be true. It’s like reddit’s “karma” system.
You make a post and say something people disagree with, and then the lack of likes makes you reconsider the post itself as in your mind the lack of likes=general disapproval. But when you state the obvious well enough and create a sufficient circle-jerk echo chamber for the popular opinion, you get the likes. You feel welcomed and commended by the community. You feel useful.
And do you know what the funniest thing is? The likes mean absolutely nothing. They are useless. Meaningless. Concrete proof of this are the US forums where you say “hello” and boom you have 570 likes. And yet we hold them at such a high standard because we subconsciously think of them as a safety net. And mistakenly so.
My message to the community is this: Whether or not the likes keep existing in the future or not, please don’t think of them as something to strive for. Speak your mind, no matter who agrees or disagrees, no matter how many flags you get, no matter how many triggered people you offend. No matter the likes.
Just do your thing and stop caring what others think of what you say. Don’t be afraid of having an opinion.
I “like” posts which make me laugh or smile, which are helpful or, as you say, as a way of say “yes, I agree with this statement” as saying that alone as a post doesn’t add a lot to the discussion.
I do agree that social media and various internet sites encourage you to want likes and to feel that you’ve done something wrong if you don’t receive any likes. But that’s a problem that’s much bigger than the wow forums alone.
Heck, it even reminds me of a friend who got offended if people didn’t put “xxx” at the end of text messages because she saw that as a required sign of friendship. I’m not a kissy person, so I sure as heck was not about to change the way I write and behave just to feed her odd ideas of text message etiquette 
I agree that saying things for the sole purpose of being “liked” rather than because you want to have a discussion and engage with others is a bad thing. That said, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to genuinely want to make others smile and laugh.
Disagree
I get falsely flagged & multiple angry replies to my comments, i still dont take it down
Having an opinion around these parts is a sin.
“I don’t like LFR” is often met with a barrage of people often better geared than myself somehow calling me an elitist top 1% player who doesn’t care about the casuals.
I’m pretty sure I have said I like MM hunter in BFA to be met with insults and people linking me to MMO-C threads and stats. It’s just hilarious.
There are definitely those that obviously change the way they say things to get liked, or “farm karma” as a Paladin regular likes to point out often 
Though as Ceran said theres nothing wrong with trying to make others smile or anything but it depends on the topic.
But yeah I really wish it wasn’t a thing, nor should people feel the need to change their opinions because of it.
No matter what opinion you have, someone will disagree with it. Which is fine, and is good for discussion because it would be extremely boring if we all just posted “I agree” all the time! Although there are certainly some who think opinion = fact (at least when it’s their opinion!).
Some people aren’t capable of disagreeing and having a reasonable, respectful discussion and instead stoop to insults, flagging, baiting and other unpleasant behaviour. I’d say that’s definitely worse than liking posts for the sake of liking them or because it was your BFF who posted it. Using the flag as a downvote is, imo, a worse abuse of forum features than being over-zealous with your likes.
I like your name haha
But if I don’t get likes my existence is meaningless! 
Moderators are flawed for sure, when my opponent is rude towards me, with obscene language even, they get their posts removed at best, but I get bans for silly, but innocent jokes. Double standards suck, Blizzard!
Have a like, Drstrangle! 
Only if you let it.
People on Argent Dawn for example keep liking each other if they happen to share “The Right Opinion”, but they are about as “Right” as mudwater is drinkable.
Honestly, that’s pretty strange to hear, if you really worded those posts exactly like that. I found that I can have whatever unpopular opinion, and as long as I word it as being my preference, i.e. “I really liked WoD. To me, WoD was a good expansion” (which is one unpopular opinion I do have), very few people try to challenge it. If on the other hand I would phrase it as “WoD was a good expansion”, a lot more people feel the urge to give their two cents of disapproval.
But yes, there are two types of talibans in my experience on the forum, where the personal angle doesn’t seem to do much to deter them from feeling the urge to yell “blood for the blood god” and jump at your throat: saying you dislike LFR, and saying you like Classic WoW. For some reason, those are no-noez on the GD forum.
Its easy the"superduperultraomega" friends club Aka the radical chic always gather around to "post their opinion, of how they are they right and you are wrong.
You never used Reddit right??
But there you can actually buy likes, and guess what, Activion-Blizzard actually pays attention to whom ever has more.
In these forums whom ever has more likes seems to “win” arguments because the masses agree with them.
Gives them a sense of validation, look no further than the so callef “vip” (green) users.
This!
I must be immune to likes. Both on getting them and (not) getting addicted to them. Maybe I am too old for modern social media culture ? 
I ‘like’ on 2 criteria most times - when post is exceptionally good and clearly well thought trough and other is, when people respond to me and answer something. I like them for taking time to respond and I use ‘like’ mainly when I do not have a follow up post. So trough ‘like’ they see I have read and appreciated their response.
Yeah, the “Likes” could be seen as more like you appreciating/finding a comment insightful. Sounds pretty sensible.
For that, I give 'ye a blue heart, as you seem to not get them.
THE PATH TO LIKES IS FLAWED!!
“Body seems unclear, is it a complete sentence?” IS ALSO FLAWED!!
Actually i lied. In a way. I was not always immune to ‘like addiction’ I actually trained myself to be immune.
You see many years back, when I was young artist and just starting my progression and I got disheartened, when I did manga styled things people liked them, and when i changed from that people just shrugged it off, and when I saw worse artists be praised… I … I … was disheartened. I got a lesson before Instagrams and stuff were a thing, but it was a painful realisation how destructive ‘like hunt’ can be. Took a break, re-branded myself (so to speak). People wouldn’t even know that the old manga things were mine, and now I would claim also they aren’t. Not that manga is bad, just manga isn’t my thing and I killed myself as an artist for ‘likes’.
Also it would be easy to say thinks that are popular and liked. i have conducted such experiments in facebook. I can get 800+ likes on groups like Anonymous just by saying something. That same formula you can apply to 9 gag too. But is it worth to change yourself for a like ? I did learn that rather not as none of those ‘likes’ give you anything IRL. So bloody what if someone thinks differently about some Warcraft related NPC ? Or mechanic - my coffee still tastes good !
gief 
button
and it should not -1 likes it should show both