It really depends. Many platforms only have 1 direct in post reaction. Depending on the community this is preferred to avoid an emoji smorgasbord mess.
I personally like Retort as at the time it gave a boost vs simple bland likes. I even had both reactions & retort on one of my forums. Worked well as most were conservative with number of emojis used.
The post above yours if you have knowledge he needs it could help to get Retort working again.
.I am sure with the team saying they are planning to add multiple reactions it will come. It just maybe not high on the priority list to implement with other projects currently having priority.
With updating official Plugin , Theme , Theme component and even core with the big changes needed takes up a fair amount of resources to meet internal deadlines.