I get the logic, but part of me still wonders how much each piece really matters in practice. Like, is watch time basically the whole game, or do things like likes and comments actually move the needle in a noticeable way?

The reason I ask is because I’ve played with with a couple of channels where I did everything by the book and still saw traffic tank after an update. It makes me question whether the “rules” we think we understand are the same rules the platform is really running on.

Another thing I’ve been chewing on is whether this mostly applies to search. A lot of people I know get more growth from suggested or browse, which feels like a different ballgame. If that’s true, then putting too much focus on search optimization might not get you as far as you hope.

And to your point Jamal, I hear you about YouTube being able to scan every frame and word, but I’m not sure it’s realistic to think that happens for every single video. The bandwidth alone would be crazy, especially at scale. I feel like metadata still has a role to play, even if it’s smaller than it used to be.

I guess I’m just a little jaded at this point. Feels like you can do all the right things and still get sideswiped. That’s the reality of playing in somebody else’s sandbox, ya know?