[Scryptonite]

Or they could keep an archive of the annotations and provide a process for the video owners to choose to have Google 'bake' them into the video permanently after they've been shut off from being used by mainstream YT interfaces. Annotation links could be visually represented in a way that indicates their link could now be found in the description.

[NullPrefix]

Too much effort, won't happen. When you care only about view count and not the content, it's easier to just deprecate and delete.

[garysahota93]

Agreed. I see it happen all of the time.