They happened before Donald Trump was even President.

And?

They still do not make sense, and I do not care who was POTUS.

You were just insinuating it was a plot to hide dislikes on videos of Biden and Fauci.

Add big media to that list. CNN and friends are not happy about the fact that indies can clean their clocks.

Personally, I do not feel POTUS needs dislikes hidden, no matter who the POTUS is. Biden, at this time, has a pretty low approval rating and has not made good on many promises people value highly. And I only mention that to highlight the large number of dislikes make sense! Same goes for CNN and friends, who regularly get major things wrong, and who are being held up as authoritative.

Generally speaking, these disconnects are not partisan at all. People in general are going to oppose this kind of information management, and it's implied they are too stupid to do it for themselves and need the help.

Viewed through this lens the broad and sustained opposition to this move is no surprise at all.

What “broad and sustained” opposition? You’re off in fantasy land. And again, the fact that these changes long predate the political issues you’re talking about suggests your theory is wrong.

Number of proponents is far less than opponents.

Changes to favor big media are unpopular. Changes to hide dislike data, which further underscores the favoring of big media, are unpopular.

There are other things, and I see no need to detail them.

This is all about both suppressing dissent and the support for it.

Unless you have a super compelling alternative...

I think the simple answer is just that platforms have been concerned a long time that their user bases are too mean.