The way to use it is:
1) know what you want to watch beforehand
2) search using a different engine like DDG
3) use yt-dl to grab the video and watch offline
The mistake would be to "log in" to the actual site, and click on the "recommended" rubbish and all that algorithmic cruft to manipulate, data-mine your soul and mislead you.
This is how it used to be until blogs started up with daily posts, then Youtube, then social media's endless firehose. Suddenly you could start treating the Internet like TV. There was always something to tune into.
Bikini catwalks, scamming phone scammers, MMA fights, math entertainment, people who build cool shit.
This is of course subjective, but I basically can't open youtube.com without wasting 10 minutes.
If I ever get the idea of going to YouTube for a legit purpose (e.g. finding a conference talk, or listening to music), my brain's first response is "oh no", because I know I have to endure at least ten minutes of entertainment. YouTube's TikTok clone is even worse, but not as good as actual TikTok.
I can only say it works like drugs.
It's the opposite for me. These days when I have 10 minutes I open YouTube and there's nothing interesting. It recommends me irrelevant stuff, stuff I've seen already, shorts or trending video crap interspersed in between in case I've suddenly become real interested in the Kardashians and football news.
Mark Rober, I guess? No wonder the algorithm promotes him to heaven and beyond, the content he puts out is extremely well done.