Which is why my general rule of thumb is to avoid the top channels. Some things I especially try to avoid:

• lots of jump cuts
• stupid thumbnails
• clickbait headlines

Those are things that drive "engagement," and going after engagement for engagement's sake is a clear sign to me that the channel isn't worth my time. If the channel largely avoids that crap and still manages to have a respectable subscriber count, it's a lot more likely to be a decent channel. Some channels I really like:

• Gamer's Nexus
• Digital Foundry
• Tech Ingredients

Each of those have high quality content, tend to avoid most of the above (still have BS thumbnails, but not nearly as bad as the big channels), and have a sizeable following. Good content absolutely exists, you just have to scrape away the crap on top to find decent channels.

That said, I no longer use my YT account, I just subbed to everything I care about on Grayjay and Newpipe (in case one fails, and NewPipe has failed more often than not for me), and I'll watch specific channels whenever I actually use YT's website.