It is not tuned for what people want to watch, but to what youtube thinks you want to watch. Also what they think they can get away with suggesting you. My experience is that I do not like what the autoplay function plays next, for example.

There are indeed "backroom bosses" deciding what arbitrary hoops someone has to jump through, youtube is no lawless place. There are enforced rules as to language and video material. This has little to do with the suggestions, but not nothing.

It does a selection that give youtube the most money. That indeed filters out unpopular things (making it also way harder to gain popularity if relying solely on youtube; a widely accepted alternative would be a deal with a popular youtuber), but also controversial stuff like criticism. Also child porn so its not entirely bad (also it is very necessary), just way too powerful and obtuse to be trusted in the hands of someone wanting to make money.

You should be loyal to people, they might also be afraid to show their interest in the stuff you like. But don't stick to them "no matter what". That can bring you into dark places.

Enforcing boundaries helps, talking about things helps, but sucking it up and abandoning people seemingly willy-nilly will leave you alone and angsty pretty fast. So will just taking everything from an asshole.

I don't have an answer to finding friends yet. Try going to social stuff about the things you like. If you have stuff you deliberately hide then try not to go to those things first, as the shame might make you lash out at potential friends. Wait till you can come to terms with yourself.

Also, I like your choice in channels. Those I don't watch from that list are those I don't yet know. Thank you for the list!

So, you are trying to defend a mechanism you actively try to work against?

YouTube does indeed force things. It's called the search algorithm and it effectively selects the people who get the money. Comply or get payed accordingly less. If you think otherwise why do you think YouTube has any say over how to "segment their offerings"?

Competition here is done for money, which is abstracted into viewer count metrics as provided by YouTube. The clickbait, call for subscription and the ads are what has been created as the result of competition.

Competition made the sales pitch for every video better, also lifted the standard on production quality in video and audio. But it drowns out most unique ideas.

This isn't only the need to compete for viewers, this is the need to comply to YouTube's search algorithm. It enforces similar content just like SEO is enforced for Google Search. There sometimes will be new stuff, but all as a means to keep being relevant, not because the stuff is interesting. That means that most new stuff will be entertainment, or "infotainment", which is fine in itself, but drowns out anything else. If you don't see the danger in that, the US government does in their strive to sabotage TikTok (not saying it's undeserved).

Production value is indeed up, which is a good thing, but not enough. This is presentation over the actual stuff. However variety is way down in the more successful youtubers. The variety comes from people who mostly don't give a shit about the performance of their videos; or from people trying to be successful while tending to a niche. The latter however will still implement most stuff from the top youtubers. If something seems successful it will be implemented by the more successful youtubers, but they mostly won't experiment as it costs money and normally negatively impacts viewer counts. YouTube's search algorithm has driven people to comply to presentation, nothing more.

Clickbait, asking for subscription, adding ads and more are all symptoms of this compliance to the platform. Do you sub to a channel that has never done any of those?

"Non GMO"

Is that the guy that has nothing to hide?

Who's whining about rising subscription prices in times of lesser quality in movies and tv shows?

Who's whining about not being able to get a raise because "we can't afford to give everyone raises in this economy"?

Who's whining because insurances are so expensive and never pay up?

Who has given up both control over his own information and control over where to get his knowledge from?

Who can no longer own media, or cars, or appliances without paying a monthly subscription that "this time for sure not getting worse over time"?

Who has given up his freedom?

Je nach resultierender Laustärke kann das auch grossgeschrieben werden.

Warum sollte das für Angelsachsen auch ein Problem sein?

You can bring it back!

Or just use a mechanical (200$+) keyboard!

"You have a face only a mother can love, but two dads."