They like things doesn’t necessarily mean they want all their followers to know “I liked this and am sharing this with you”.

Recommends are not private, and they are certainly not obscured, as above each story in the home feed/stream there is a line that says ‘Recommended by <person> <n> mins ago’.

People need to be more selective with the things they like, so that only the good stuff goes to their followers, who will then selectively like that good stuff, so the best stuff propagates throughout the network.

Stories like ‘I know what’s wrong with Medium: People don’t use Recommends correctly’ get more Recommends than much better, much more interesting Stories out there.