I think there can be a difference between how people behave and what people want. Which means there is a huge difference between what people want to engage with and what they do engage with. For example, TikTok will aggressively optimize your feed based on what you watch. If you get hooked on a video which makes you angry or reactive (like a political take), TikTok will show you more of it. You end up engaging with that content despite not wanting to.

None of social media is optimized around what people like or enjoy watching. It is only optimized on one thing: engagement to drive ad revenue via addictive practices. Engagement != enjoyment. That especially includes YouTube.