Their video about thumbnail A/B testing was quite interesting to see. Considering how they have dedicated designers to make these thumbnails I guess that works pretty well, despite your personal opinion on it, with which I agree too.
Unfortunately this is just the way it is on YT now. Post clickbait thumbnails, or miss out on hundreds of thousands of views. Because that's the way YT likes it. They don't want to positively weight long-term high-quality content, they want to promote clickbait.
Quite the opposite. If they didn't care about the view count the content wouldn't exist in the first place. No one makes content with the intention of no one watching it, and they certainly don't make high quality content that requires a team of people and expensive equipment.
At a bare minimum they make them because they're passionate about sharing with others. In which case they care about the view count. Once again, no one makes a video and uploads it to a video-sharing platform and doesn't care who watches it.
Having the time and money to dedicate to making high quality content makes them higher quality. If they have to work a 9-5 doing something else, and they record everything on a Galaxy S4 because they have no money, it's bound to be lower quality or just non-existent.
You have I have very different ideas of tech illiterate. Most of the hosts have forgotten more than I care to learn. I guess if you work very technical tech stuff 24-7 you have a higher standard.
YouTube gives a b testing for YouTubers based on watch time, so they can tune their thumbnails to the one that gets the most watch time. The audience doesn't always know the history of the chanel, they need to go off the thumbnail.
As part of the mindless horde of sub-intellectual gremlins, i have to say that while i dont love thumbnails like that, i still click on the video because i know it'll be quality
People start yt channels for a lot of reason and probably the biggest reason is money. I don't really understand your fixation over yt channels only being passion project.
You have to understand shit like these thumbsnails arent made for people like you and me.
They are made for the mindless horde of sub-intellectual gremlins who are incapable of rational, independent thought. The kind that run out and put sandpaper on their windshield wipers and microwave their phones to "fast recharge" them because they saw a video that said to do that.
and the sad, terrifying reality, is these mentally stunted little goblins outnumber us by margins that are too terrifying to even think about.
Whether or not it's a valid counter point you continue to act superior when all you achieve is be a massive dick to people that don't mind the thumbnail or video
All of their thumbnails are unfortunately click-baity. They spoke about ut in an older video. Apparently, the click-baity images drive too much traffic for them to justify something more subtle.
Oh, no I totally get it. I'm well aware I'm in the tiny minority that are put off by them. It's just the kind of illusion that once it gets broken you can no longer unsee it.
It's the same with clickbait headlines. If it's a question, the answer is no.