I imagine Cheryl put this "new" feature up because she got tired of the endless complaints and pm's. She probably wanted to try and appease those people that complain about reading posts they don't like. Which really is a silly thing when you can simply ignore a person or better yet, ignore a thread or just move past a particular post.
I personally do not like the new feature, because it does look a little cluttered to me, but it's not my board or my choice. I get having options, but IMO the "like" button is enough because there still is the rep feature. When you dislike something, instead of having a dislike button, maybe you can quote that post and put "DISLIKE"? LOL
I'm a mod on two other boards and it sucks. People complain about the dumbest things and I hardly ever respond to my many, many pm's. We don't really need mod mommy or daddy to tell us what we can or can't say, do we? I'm still relatively a newbie and I really don't know much about who owns this board. I just think that, keeping the trolls and spam down to almost nothing a huge task and that alone is enough for me. Redesigning the board for our personal wants and needs seems a little selfish.
But that is only my opinion. Carry on...