I'm by no means sufficiently naive to think that the simple weighting by views that I've described is a panacea. I think it's a better solution with its own tradeoffs, and nothing more.
I'm even open to the possibility that it proves to be totally incorrect, and will need adjustment. But I think that given the options it's the best possible route. Only time will tell.
Regarding your example, doesn't the traffic flow indicate that there's more demand for the cutting-off-head kind of information? I mean sure- that says some shitty things about humanity, but well, what can be done about that?