I will never pay a subscription for the current clickbaity slop. I might if the algorithm were better, closer to YouTube of 10 years ago, when it would suggest lectures, artfully done film shorts, and overall more interesting, high quality content.
10 years ago the most popular 100 videos on YouTube were all pop music videos. Justin Bieber had 3 of the top 10.
The youtube algorithm has been personalized for much more than 10 years and has never prioritized any kind of lectures or artful films over anything else it thinks a viewer will watch. You're asking for them to bring back an era that never existed.
If you're not getting those sorts of recommendations it's because you ddon't actually watch that kind of content, or you're removing your history.
I’ve watched YouTube daily for nearly 20 years. The majority of the content as well as the algorithm have changed substantially over that period of time. I’m not the only one to notice this btw. There is even a word to describe the phenomenon, “enshitification”. I do clear my watch history, and have never signed into YouTube, frequently resetting the app and watching online in private sessions with adblock. The frequency with which I have to reset the app to prevent the algorithm feeding me terrible undesired content has gone up overtime, I now do it once every few weeks. That’s how much I dislike what it pushes on me. I used to get stuff like “philosophy overdose” and sapolosky’s stanford lecture series, good operas. I now get stuff like “these 5 things are killing you while you sleep!!!” and “mom is shocked to find out her teenage son is raping and eating babies severed limbs.” I’m not being hyperbolic; that’s actually what YouTube recommends.
