Have you actually watched any of the videos in question?

A lot of them are blatantly, and bizzarely, sexualized.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F4WrhzX-ZU

It isn't so much the obvious product placement and toy-pushing that's disturbing to me, it's the actual content. There isn't really much YouTube can do about it, it's more so the responsibility of the parents to limit their kids free-reign internet consumption.

Funny you mention that. Growing up, I remember watching the Transformers cartoon, and begging for the toys. Years later, I watched a retrospective program on the series, where they noted that The first episode was just a long form advert, and was so popular, they ordered a series, of toy commercials.

So nothing is totally new here, except that the average youtuber seems to have no ethicical qualms about pushing any product, while networks did, and still do, qualify their advertisers.

Having watched the video in question: the difference is that these videos are crossing into softcore porn, which usually ain't the case in cartoons (at least the ones aimed at children).

Cartoons are way more expensive to produce than these videos.