[meepmorp]

I don't think that's true. I'm sure a lot of youtubers want people to enjoy their videos and get something from them, but they're also monetizing eyeballs. That means clicks on videos, which means grabbing attention in the video thumbnails. All other things being equal, people will click on a thumbnail with someone with an exaggerated facial expression more often than a neutral one.

As to why that works, my theory is that we're wired to respond to more extreme emotional displays because we're socially oriented great apes and that kind of information is important for navigating the world.