Imagine there was a competitor which did have this feature.

And users appreciated it, and used it to discover more content that they were more interested in.

Preventing that happening would be a good reason to implement it. Don't wait for someone else to implement something users like...

The sad fact of the matter is that you are wrong. People do not want that. No matter what their words say, their actions is what bring in the revenue

Those platforms already exist though.

TikTok's differentiating feature is that it ruthlessly serves up algorithmic content so it can collect data on the result of that interaction and iterate.

Feels like you're fundamentally breaking it if you remove that.