[sjm-lbm]

I don't know if this is true, but I've heard the algorithm has changed over the years - in 2015 during peak Vlog, there wasn't much content on Youtube made by creators targeting (and putting professional-level effort into) the platform, so the algorithm rewarded creators that were creating enough content to really hold a user on Youtube.

Now, there's enough content that the algorithm favors quality more, because YT can more easily keep a user by recommending similar content from a different creator of a higher quality.

.. again, no idea if that's true, but it does feel like it makes sense.