I like the idea of requiring typing out for agreement to your own observations (though not a required comment), as I think that this would cut down on a lot of the lower quality RG observations.
I also think that having some type of like/thanks button could reduce this even further, BUT I have several reservations.
I always worry about adding “likes” because then you get users taking actions specifically to get likes. It could incentivize behaviors like adding confirming/agreeing IDs just to get likes, so I am a bit wary. So likes might be ok for comments, but maybe not for IDs?
I would also definitely want a way to manage like/thanks notifications. I don’t want them clogging and obscuring the other notifications I need to take action on! If there were some kind of like button, maybe any notifications for that could be just one line/separate like: 12 users liked your IDs/comments (and then click on it to look at those in detail). It would be a little dopamine rush for IDers but not overwhelming.
There are some existing requests that propose some of these features or deal with similar ideas:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/improve-id-function-and-name-of-agree-buttons-a-modest-proposal-not/6589
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/prevent-duplicate-identifications/6498
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/provide-a-non-comment-way-to-let-iders-know-you-received-their-helpful-information/5087
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/add-like-button-to-comments-on-observations/15093