A reasonable proposition, and it would indeed fix the problem of clickbait/outragebait content. Locally.

People who profit from clickbait/outragebait content would migrate to other platforms that do optimize for engagment, and the cycle begins anew. Thus it doesn't fix the problem globally.

A hybrid solution might be possible if all (or most) service providers agreed to certain baseline restrictions on algorithmic optimization for engagement. Probably unrealistic, because there would be all incentives to cheat any such agreement in subtle ways.

While I don't like various problems associated with it, I support the principle of freedom of speech.