For the viewers (us), this is the opposite of what they should do. For us, they should be showing the up/down count ratio on the video preview link itself so we could easily identify the garbage videos without even having to click on them.
Of course this would reduce the amount of ads and pages they would serve to users, so it's in their interest to do everything they can to prevent users from being warned of time-wasting content.
The corollary is that wasting users time more aggressively is more likely to instill resentment and platform abandonment. Definitely a two edged sword.
Indeed it does instill resentment, but as with many other big companies there's really no alternative. Someday youtube will fall second to a service that better meets the users' needs, but I suspect that will be many years from now.
I think a lot of the behaviors companies exhibit like this are related to US stock markets and the fixation on quarterly earnings per share. So much executive compensation is stock/options that it's a wiser bet for execs to optimize for the short term. Planning for 5+ years is no longer reasonable from their perspective because even with the best intentions, unplanned events can ruin everything. They might as well do whatever they can to cash in as quickly as possible.
I don't see this changing for any reason. So what will happen is that every 5-10 years some upstart company will gain enough funding to replace the tired old leader, and then within 5-10 years it will become that same tired old leader.
Of course this would reduce the amount of ads and pages they would serve to users, so it's in their interest to do everything they can to prevent users from being warned of time-wasting content.