Ok, @Mark just clarified for me that user specific columns will only store the value indefinitely if you have email sign in enabled in the app.
It’s my understanding that they currently will work for public apps, but only until you close it. At least in this case it would be good for temporary values, like custom filters, or calculators, where you don’t need to store the value after you close the app.
Still not sure yet if we can count total likes from all users. I’ll need to test that yet.