If I go to buy a new car, I'll look at the brands I have experience with, like what my friends and family drive. If I can actually see what its like and have people I trust endorse it, I'm more likely to support it
And people subconsciously trust people they interact with often, like content creators whose videos you watch. Most people think they're above being influenced by ads, but they're not.
If my friend/family is paid to say good things about a brand, I also wouldn't trust their praise of said brand. I mean, I've had a family member sucked into a product selling pyramid scheme, so I have experienced exactly this scenario.
That is not to say that it doesn't work. The fact that the family member got into the pyramid scheme in the first place is proof that some people are susceptible to it. But also, none of us (the family) gave in to her advertisement, so obviously that's proof that a lot of people also aren't susceptible to it.
I barely interact with content creators. They don't reply to my comments very much, and even if they did, they'd still say they 100% support the thing they're being paid to say nice things about. I cant have a genuine conversation with them about the thing, how good it is, what the downsides are etc. See Kyle hill's vaguely recent video about scientific misconduct where they also advertise BetterHelp. The comments section was overwhelmingly negative about it, and their response was essentially "cry about it."
I prefer smaller channels (because they feel more "human" if you know what I mean), and their authors spend a lot of time engaging with the audience. Discussion is actually useful, you can learn something from YouTube comments. Yes, that YouTube.
Just step outside the highly commercialized part and you'll be surprised.
