Many people can’t read as quickly as you can. My husband for instance speaks English as a second language. Reading is a large investment of time for him; conversely if he does read something, his comprehension is greater than mine. On the flip side, for spoken content I tune out almost immediately, while he is immersed.
I know not everyone is ESL, but it shouldn’t be surprising that different people have different levels of speed and comfort with reading vs audio content.
> I can't understand why people tolerate spoken instruction
Not only do people tolerate it, some people prefer it! I'm going out on a limb here as I have no data to back this up but I'm willing to bet that the average person has not done any dense reading since they finished their schooling. With that context, it's probably not hard to imagine why most people prefer video instruction over blog post and what not.
Count me among the minority then - one of the first things I do in a game is turn the sound effects and background music as low as possible - but I don't care either way as long as I can skip it. Especially if I've already seen/heard the dialog before, making me sit and wait through cut scenes or scrolling dialog is a good way to get me to find another game.
It's not like this for everyone! Some people really enjoy looking at the art or listening to the voice acting or whatever. But please give me a skip button; I'm not watching a program, I'm trying to play a game.
I probably mildly prefer reading... but I very much prefer all the advantages that a game without narration has. It's like the difference between a movie and a book. A movie can have spectacle, but it's expensive, short, and constrained. A book is limitless.
Same with narration. Narration requires a fixed script; don't dare try to give your character a unique name. Text can be generated and modified on the fly to reflect a dynamic game environment. Adding a new sidequest doesn't require actors and studio time; just a gamedev.
I also prefer blog posts to YouTube videos for most things I can skim read 10x faster than someone can speak.
I can't understand why people tolerate spoken instruction (the visual side of video content is a different thing entirely. That I understand)