The moment they fix the search, fix their recommendations, stop wasting money on junk projects like games and allow me to completely disable Shorts, I will resubscribe to YT Premium.
The number of ads per hour of video is higher.
And people get addicted to the dopamine fix. Short videos generally will have to be incredibly stimulating to keep people watching.
Your dopamine goes through the rood for 15 seconds or 30 seconds, after that it drops down again and you need the next video to get it higher again and again. In between the videos you get ads, so in the end they lure you into watching a whole bunch of ads.
They optimize their algoritms so they know what keeps you watching. Could be cute puppies, could also be fake news about how everything is somebody elses fault, but they just want to keep you watching. They don't care about the truth, they need your eyes on the ads.
I would argue it's more about consumerism and fin tech business ideas now, tik Tok nowadays has a bunch of shops, it's kind of the end stage of this sadly