Their goal is to keep you subscribed, not to keep you entertained.
They know they don’t have enough premium content to keep you as a subscriber if that’s all you watch. That kind of content usually costs a ton to create. So they need to have you watch filler content as well. And just like social media companies have taken advantage of the slot machine effect to increase addictiveness, so too do streamers. If everything you watch is good, you’ll end up watching less and be more likely to cancel.
You’re assuming that the goal of a recommendation algorithm is to recommend the thing you’d most want to watch at that specific moment. It’s not. The goal is to maximize their retention. It’s amazing how many of life’s annoyances become instantly explainable when you realize that your interests are not aligned with those of the companies you’re dealing with. Your happiness will always be a secondary concern to their profits.
They know they don’t have enough premium content to keep you as a subscriber if that’s all you watch. That kind of content usually costs a ton to create. So they need to have you watch filler content as well. And just like social media companies have taken advantage of the slot machine effect to increase addictiveness, so too do streamers. If everything you watch is good, you’ll end up watching less and be more likely to cancel.
You’re assuming that the goal of a recommendation algorithm is to recommend the thing you’d most want to watch at that specific moment. It’s not. The goal is to maximize their retention. It’s amazing how many of life’s annoyances become instantly explainable when you realize that your interests are not aligned with those of the companies you’re dealing with. Your happiness will always be a secondary concern to their profits.