And I’m not advising that they should do anything different! Who am I?! I’m just pointing out that the culture of YouTubers is fundamentally about deliberately subjecting yourself to the most extreme audience capture.
And I’m not advising that they should do anything different! Who am I?! I’m just pointing out that the culture of YouTubers is fundamentally about deliberately subjecting yourself to the most extreme audience capture.
Additionally, "the algorithm" rewards channels that have a lot of watchtime & retention (because againg, this leads to more ad placement opportunities for Youtube). So if you are able to produce long-form videos that keep the viewers engaged and watching, your videos are more likely to be recommended, which reinforces the popularity of long videos.
Ben Jordan used to do almost entirely synthesizer stuff, now it is all privacy and security focused because that is what he got rewarded for. NatswhatIreckon, did all manner of comedy stuff like making fun are car shows, he ended up fixated on cooking because one video exploded in views back 2020. Heck, MrBeast used to be a minecraft channel.
In getting rewarded, they tend to lean into that. I don't blame them but also it does mean they become risk adverse at times.