@SnuggCTO Totally agree. This thing isn't going anywhere, they're far too entrenched and established already to be in any immediate danger. The only real concern is what will it become, what will it morph into in the next couple of years. The most recent push towards more traditional forms of media like late-night talk show hosts is a sign of clear favouritism towards mainstream-type content. Instead of raw and unfiltered content, which is one of the main reasons why the platform grew to be so popular throughout the 2010-2020 period, nowadays we have a crapton of this watered, dumbed-down cookie-cutter "user friendly" content that is there only to numb the brains of the masses and make them feel warm, safe and existing in blissful ignorance. Without being too conspiratorial about it, it definitely doesn't feel right to me any more.
I'm not even against that type of content existing on the platform. Let it be there, why not? I'm just bothered because it's being shoved in front of everyone's eyeballs so forcibly. You can still find alternative/counter-culture type of content out there, but you really, really have to dig and be very purposeful in a way you "mold" your own Suggestsion and Recommendations. It often takes me watching 10-20 videos of a certain type before I start getting recommended more of it, in quantities that are clearly personalized for my overy own specific interests. However, every time I make a mistake of watching just 1 Jimmy Kimmel video, my Homepage gets literally swarmed with his, Fallon's, Corden's and other talk show hosts' videos. Then I have to go through days and weeks of gradually eliminating them from my suggestions by actively ignoring the recommendations. I often notice some of their videos "stabbing my eyeballs" in recommendations up to 10 times before YT finally stops trying to get me to watch them. That doesn't seem like it's a case for non-mainstream media content. But maybe I'm just biased based on my own perspective, it's hard to tell.
On the flip side, there are no other platforms out there offering even remote levels of potential exposure. It's still very much possible to grow, right now probably easier than ever in the past few years because of the whole pandemic situation. I mean I'm personally getting thousands of views on my newest videos. Sure, that's still nowhere near the hundreds of thousands or millions of views top creators are getting, but we often forget how insanely crazy it is to get a couple hundred, a thousand or even "just" 10,000 people to watch the videos you make, purely because both you and them are spending time using the platform, which does such a mind-bogglingly good job of connecting the viewer to the content which that viewer doesn't even know exists, but still wants to watch.
So, I expect we'll all have to adapt to the way platform operates now and in the future. Edgy content of yesterday is already dying out, we'll have to find a way to be more family-friendly, yet "adult" and "mature" and "politically neutral"/non-confrontational enough to avoid being COPPA-ed/canceled into non-existence.
It's a tricky line to balance on, but it still seems to be worth all the trouble and effort.