YouTube has gotten much much better at rewarding videos based on context not just length. They weren't always great about it, but they've improved tremendously.

YouTube has gotten much much better at rewarding videos based on context not just length. They weren't always great about it, but they've improved tremendously. I can see them further adjusting this, so that say if you've uploaded ~11 minute videos consecutively it'll prevent you from adding that "middle video" ad break (note: I don't know if they already do this). I don't believe these changes have collapsed creativity, there isn't another platform on the planet that is creating as much long form content as on YouTube. People aren't posting their great absurdly high detailed yet entertaining content on Medium or Substack, no it's on YouTube. This has led to a walled garden of sorts, but it's also reaping benefits from their improvements from the days where you could easily game YouTube with shallow thumbnails.