The ideal platform for something like youtube would be to separate discovery from content.
You host the content, and you can pick from UIs/algorithms for the discovery.
You host the content, and you can pick from UIs/algorithms for the discovery.
It’s the same as the old Apple saying: if you’re serious about software, you have to make hardware.
The actual quote, "people who are really serious about software should make their own hardware," is from Alan Kay, when he was speaking at a seminar in 1982 called Creative Think. Andy Hertzfeld was in attendance and took notes. When Hertzfeld got back to his office at Apple, he summarized the notes on one page and handed out to his team members. Kay was later hired as an Apple Fellow in 1984.
I'm woefully uninformed to speculate about how feasible this might be though, so it remains just a hope for me.
I think PeerTube or systems like it have a lot promise — particularly if more estblished channels on YouTube, and other media producers, were to start to promote them as alternative methods for accessing their output.