That number should be how the total of upvotes and downvotes you have personally given that user. Useful for finding who to block when you see a troll comment and realize that nearly every comment you’ve seen from that user has been a waste of your time.
Seems a few people have gotten that confused. Article spent too much time rehashing the change in 15.0 before getting to 15.1 and felt like a typical ragebait article.
Still seems a little ragebaity, they don’t really have a lot of proof that Apple has intentionally disabled running unsigned apps. Their argument is that Apple changed the process for running in 15.0 and an app won’t start in 15.1, therefore the end of the era of sideloading. Personally, I would’ve liked more details on that part and less on history of 15.0.