It's all very frustrating from an artistic standpoint. Artists and philosophers have always been disgusted with popular culture, which is what alienated them from it. I have a couple of articles coming out in a week or two on this intellectual elitism.
Advances in technology and the elimination of intermediaries are indeed making for a golden age of content, in some sense. Anyone can film a movie and put it on some streaming platform, even if only on YouTube. I've written elswhere about the downside of streaming, though, which is that it trivializes the contents because of the market's oversaturation.
There's a higher bar in getting on TV than there is in getting on YouTube, of course. But don't forget that there are plenty of bad TV shows being made now too. At least, there are shows for all niches, but there are also mediocre shows on Netflix. Most new shows aren't great, in my view. It's just that there are so many shows being made now, that there are also more great ones than ever before.
I don't know if MrBeast's contents are badly edited. I suspect that if they are, it's intentional since it adds to the appearance of authenticity. He wouldn't want the videos to be slick since that might be offputting to the YouTube audience. If anyone knows what they're doing on that platform, it's him. He gives the audience what they want, which is outrageous content they can't find anywhere else. That content just happens to be consistent with some neoliberal presumptions that predominate. Otherwise, his content would be subversive and less likely to rise to the top.
