doesn’t list of reaction that count as likes handle all 4?
Don’t want it to count, remove all from the setting
Count all equally, all all to the setting
What premium customers want … well - mmm… OK
The team does what it wants … well - mmm … OK
We may also need an override setting longer term once we allow “any reactions”.
Main reason this has not happened to date is simply… no time to work on this change.
I understand totally that. Likes aren’t that big thing after all, and using groups with some strange fuzzy logic via SQL may work better after all.
It does. Would work perfectly for me. And would be happy to see this happen when you find time for the change. 
This is as it should be.
Would it make any sense to do work that no one is paying for that they don’t want to do?
And to be fair, there have been examples of features/plugins they’ve added that were popular first on self hosted sites. I’m fact, this one is an example if I’m not mistaken.
You are missing the point. That was not critic. It was list of reality behind needs.
So there was no feelings behind it. Just some everyday facts that must be filled.