I really wish the people making videos on subjects like science/physics, engineering, woodworking, etc... would stop putting thumbnails and titles on their work that target an audience that isn't going to care/enjoy/understand the subject of the video. And maybe even keep some of the intended audience away.
They have bothered to test the effectiveness, and found that clickbait does work. (You'll sometimes see a video title change over time as creators try to find a title that drives more engagement.) The reality is that whatever gets more views or engagement is more valuable to creators -- target audience really doesn't matter.
In this world, most of the money you get is from sponsorships and YouTube ad share, which requires raw views. (Something the "intended audience" doesn't care about!) For a creator trying to make money, the "intended audience" is whoever watches your videos. Does it matter to the creator if the "intended audience" is kept away when the creator ultimately makes more money by boosting views through clickbait?
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/clickbait-rem...
Those are just recommendation algos, they are not specifically want to annoy you.
Absolutely sets off the uncanny valley alarms in my dumb lizard brain. And then like you mention, people have latched onto the aesthetic because it works, so it's all over the place. But it's just instant unease and feeling of "Absolutely not." that I don't get from something like e.g. this person does not exist. Very anti-asmr like.