Imo the biggest issue here is that by making maps too frequently enter into the loved status eats away the novelty of being loved by the community when the map hasnt existed for more than a few months in the worst cases. Loved maps should be much more rare than ranked maps since time is the key factor in making something that is actually known by many and liked by many and when the system first came out people were most exited about these old classic maps that are several years old being able to have a category of their own as those were the maps that had gradually gained this widespread love for them.
Having 1-2 polls per year hosted through the client itself to help with the voting activity or having a roster of selected people to pick maps together for loved would be what I would suggest as now with the way the system is, getting loved even after changing the numbers on the system (whether it be 200 kds or 100 favs) is still much easier and preferred way to push maps forward instead of ranked (sadly) and will stay this way unless loved becomes something that is achieved and not "farmed". One only needs to look at current amount of qualified maps and compare the amount of loved maps added recently to see this trend.
If drastic changes like the one I suggested arent made to the purpose of loved then most likely the popular opinion on loved status wont change as the whole category is filled with maps that belong into ranked and the maps that deserve status of their own are being lost into the midst of these maps, making them unavoidably feel as "normal" or "unspecial" because of this same label on them. Basically loved right now is like what I think would happen if aspire contests were held as often. At first its new and exiting, everyone loves the idea as it is something we need and pushes the game forwards to a better direction. This would change quickly though as the oversupply of contests happening monthly compared to undersupply of great aspire entries due to lack of ideas and development in mapping would lead into inevitably lowering the bar on winning entries and therefore eating away the value that the initial contests had. In loveds case oversupply of loved cycles that are easier to achieve than ranked + undersupply of great maps due to lack of time and development in mapping = lowered bar and overall quality in maps that become loved, eating away the value from the initial maps that had had the time to become loved and deserving of the status.
tl;dr Make loved an actual achievement for a map that is in its own right harder to achieve than ranked, 1-2 picking/selection cycles per year done by community or selected panel of pickers, forget kds + fav reqs as they encourage to abandon going for ranked which is what all maps that arent breaking the criteria/lack something essential should do in the first place.
Having 1-2 polls per year hosted through the client itself to help with the voting activity or having a roster of selected people to pick maps together for loved would be what I would suggest as now with the way the system is, getting loved even after changing the numbers on the system (whether it be 200 kds or 100 favs) is still much easier and preferred way to push maps forward instead of ranked (sadly) and will stay this way unless loved becomes something that is achieved and not "farmed". One only needs to look at current amount of qualified maps and compare the amount of loved maps added recently to see this trend.
If drastic changes like the one I suggested arent made to the purpose of loved then most likely the popular opinion on loved status wont change as the whole category is filled with maps that belong into ranked and the maps that deserve status of their own are being lost into the midst of these maps, making them unavoidably feel as "normal" or "unspecial" because of this same label on them. Basically loved right now is like what I think would happen if aspire contests were held as often. At first its new and exiting, everyone loves the idea as it is something we need and pushes the game forwards to a better direction. This would change quickly though as the oversupply of contests happening monthly compared to undersupply of great aspire entries due to lack of ideas and development in mapping would lead into inevitably lowering the bar on winning entries and therefore eating away the value that the initial contests had. In loveds case oversupply of loved cycles that are easier to achieve than ranked + undersupply of great maps due to lack of time and development in mapping = lowered bar and overall quality in maps that become loved, eating away the value from the initial maps that had had the time to become loved and deserving of the status.
tl;dr Make loved an actual achievement for a map that is in its own right harder to achieve than ranked, 1-2 picking/selection cycles per year done by community or selected panel of pickers, forget kds + fav reqs as they encourage to abandon going for ranked which is what all maps that arent breaking the criteria/lack something essential should do in the first place.