A few years ago I got the devotee badge in the forum I moderate, and I didn’t(thankfully) lose my sanity. The badge was earned naturally through daily participation and I didn’t even realize I hit the mark when I was granted the badge. But I agree, I have people on my forum who took one day off and DM’ed me complaining that they lost the “streak” for the badge.
Yeah. The problem with the give out x amount of likes badge is it promotes a lot of users in “liking” content that’s not necessarily useful/helpful just to achieve it. The badge should be able to be earned in a natural way. If you’re generally active(and being useful) for one year, the badge should be given.