We need more 'Authenticity' on YouTube

I was going through NeoCities a little while ago and, through a website that I have since forgotten, was introduced to this lovely little video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Swa9CYgRk

And it really made me miss old YouTube. The shitty camera work, the terrible white balance, the not-so great sound, but so much heart and soul and love.

I have found that these days, my experience on YouTube is mainly videos that I would called 'Ulta-processed' (like the food) to make them as palatable as possible to the viewer, with amazing lighting, sound, editing (some would say 'over the top' editing) and a topic that will get easy views.
And, these videos are fine, a lot of them teach me things or interest me, but they don't ever feel like they have as much soul as videos before 2013/14, when people were making things for fun instead of profit.

I think back to a lot of my old favourite videos on YouTube, which are just my favourite youtubers fucking around. And I loved them because they were fun and you could tell the people in the videos really loved what they were doing and not just churning it out because they knew it would make them money.

I really love and miss these kinds of videos. Having a fancy camera is cool, having good lighting is cool, but what I will always remember more than anything is how a video made me feel, not how 'clean' or 'aesthetic' it looked.

This is a big example: The Yogscast. Originally a channel that Lewis created to make WOW guides, quickly turned into a channel that he says was to share his friend, Simon's funny personality. It was a very fun and authentic channel, until about 2016-17 when their videos began to feel like content first, fun 2nd. Then, Simon took a hiatus for a number of years and the channel basically became a Garry's mod content farm with boring and unoriginal videos because it kept the company afloat. (which is understandable because Lewis had a lot of people relying on the company for their livelihoods)

They occasionally try to go back to their roots with fun Minecraft videos, but they will never have that same authentic quality they used to have. They still put out very samey videos every week with tried and true video formats to keep their much small now viewer base coming back.
Not to mention all of their slightly more authentic or unique content is now behind a YouTube membership paywall, all of their live action/irl videos you must pay to see, which were the only videos I enjoyed watching from them after their channel became Garry's Mod slop.
They used to write original songs for their videos!! Now they just play games and sound tired of it all.

Some of their older videos I enjoyed a lot:
https://youtu.be/84JuqMB0EpE?si=hisK4Q85YVWtoOrw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfTlbB6JCD8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsJeUqYSlt4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzeeV_Dl9gw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFf8B5FfBFw
https://youtu.be/wSvaX6t7rUM?si=Gr9xVqyrVzh4TGEX

When money becomes involved I believe there comes a certain restriction with what a YouTuber is able to create, and that's why I believe there should be more people who just post on YouTube for fun instead of for money.

Everything in society at the moment feels like a race to get more and more and more money (which for some people I can understand is important if you are struggling financially) and I feel you cannot create authentic and 100% purposeful videos on YouTube once money becomes involved, once it becomes you livelihood.