Yeah, Kevin Munger's book skillfully dissects what he calls "The YouTube Apparatus" [0]
The creators aren't really tuning their output based on consumer feedback, they're actually optimizing for the platform's metrics, so it's the (algorithmic) machine incentivizing humans to essentially feed it money.
[0] https://kevinmunger.substack.com/p/in-the-belly-of-the-mrbea...