The simple solution is to just not fetch the damn likes, if you don't want to see them. Very efficient for you. You don't have to prevent others from sending them.
Discussion
That’s what I currently do, but there are pot belly goblins out there that will send screenshots of themselves liking my notes.
Likes are an ego boost for the liker not the poster #few
speaking of not fetching things, has there been discussion on nip-01 filters protocol to support querying for notes _not_ with tags?
Many discussions, it's harder than it looks, probably won't happen. Relays shouldn't be expected to be as powerful as actual databases. For the most part clients can survive well enough without these tricks.
It sounds like a simple solution. I'm new here, how do I implement it?