Not to mention they are likely utilising AI in their crappy algorithm

I mean, they always have. YouTube's whole job is to get you to watch more YouTube. It sees you watched video A so now it trys to figure out what else you might like to watch next so it suggests video B based on your interests and watching patterns. What the algorithm specifically prioritizes has changed a few times, which is why there's been fads in the algorithm. But determining what is something you'd be interested in isn't something that's easy to put directly into code, but something that can "vibe" it out is a much better tool to use. Its actually one of the better use cases for AI (AI in broad terms not specifically LLMs or other generative slop currently on everyone's shit list).