I always thought it was a bug that view counts on YouTube varied depending on what page you saw them on. It can be different on the video view page, the channel page, and in your dashboard.

Turns out they're just making that shit up.

The publisher who uploaded the video might care. Especially so, if they are selling to advertisers. Comments, ratings, and favorites are three variables we calculate to reflect how engaging a video is.

LOL users care and they notice a LOT..Probably something like 5% of videos have a comment about how the view count is inaccurate.

does it stop them from watching videos or in any way hinder their enjoyment of the content?

If they feel strongly enough about it to leave a comment then I think it's safe to say it does hinder their enjoyment - in the same way that obviously broken things distract and displeasure in any medium.

I faked data for a client once. He had phpbb running and wanted a script that would slowly and randomly generate views on a specific topic.

Since this was just a field in a database, it involved some simple update code.

The results? More people are interested in anything that they think are popular (or they are curious as to why so many people viewed it).

My client got more actual hits overall on these topics.