I joined Steemit February last year and was not opportune to witness the Views display but, what a good thing it would have been! Not all content readers interact with the post any further. It may not always mean the reader does not appreciate the content.
If we were to classify readers into social and passive readers, I'd say we have almost 10x more passive readers (who don't interact with posts or comment) than social readers (who interact and/or comment).
RE: Views and Analytics are going to be crucial for front-ends