To start with, just display the Like count per thread and let readers visually scan for highly rated threads. We might as well take this one step at a time. There's less chance of an unpleasant surprise that way.
I scan for threads that are of interest to me. Whether they have likes or not or are highly rated is irrelevant.
Also on MP I've seen likes given for information that is 100% wrong, which is another reason I don't pay much attention to likes. Not always a good barometer of accurate or valuable info.
Cheers.