SEO and “algorithms” like YouTube are tuned for maximum user engagement, which means people watching more videos for longer. That’s a pretty decent proxy for enjoying what you watch.

variety is way down in the more successful youtubers

I honestly don’t watch any of the top YouTube channels. I don’t sub to any of these, and I don’t think I’ve watched a full video of any of them, aside from maybe a few music videos. In fact, the channel with the most subs that I sub to is JerryRigEverything, and I mostly sub because he’s local (we’re both in Utah). Here’s a selection of channels I sub to that I watch the most:

• Gamers Nexus
• Digital Foundry
• Louis Rossmann
• Stand-up Maths
• The Money Guy Show
• Naomi Brockwell TV
• Level1Techs
• Audit the Audit - starting to do more clickbait titles and thumbnails, but quality remains high
• The Phawx
• Leo Vader
• Mental Outlaw
• Optimum Tech
• Mr. Puzzle

They do a pretty good job of keeping titles informative instead of clickbaity and thumbnails relevant (I honestly don’t care about thumbnails). I have abandoned a lot of channels because they do that nonsense and don’t go as in-depth as I’d like, such as SomeOrdinaryGamers, LTT, and Jayz2Cents.

I honestly recommend any of those channels, they’re about all I watch on YouTube. Oh, and only 3-4 of those have sponsors (GN, Stand-Up Maths, and Audit the Audit come to mind), and very few of them ask for subs and likes. I block ads and occasionally buy merch from them.

Edit: Forgot Tech Ingredients.

YouTube doesn’t force anything, those happen to get more clicks and watches, so that’s what you need to do to get more clicks and watches. YouTube isn’t arbitrarily deciding to make the experience more corny, that’s just what attracts people to videos.

Each channel has a target audience, and it’s really easy to tell that I’m not the target audience for a lot of the content there. I have a curated set of channels with high quality content that aligns with my interests (i.e. less click-baity thumbnails and titles). If their content sucked, I wouldn’t sub, that is their incentive to do a good job. The market on YouTube is big enough that there’s plenty of content for a variety of tastes, so channels specialize in their particular demographic niche.

So yeah, I think competition absolutely is helping video content be better, but perhaps YouTube could do better to segment their offerings to specific tastes, so even if most people click on click-baity thumbnails and whatnot, those that don’t appreciate it can still get boosted enough to reach their target niche.