>> The "like" feature is plain terrible, the smiley face is distracting me from the content of the feed because it's on top and bright yellow.

I honestly have no idea what you're talking about.

About four months ago traded out my normal GR for an instance of it in Prism with the Helvetireader style sheet, and have never looked back.

Do that, and see how nice and minimalist a web app can be.