Well yes, but actually no. You can't copy the community and culture - and there's so much stuff endemic to TikTok. Not to mention how they disrupted video editing and remixing making it more accessible and fun.

Stories do not rely so much on the network effect, you almost always watch stories of people you follow (friends and celebs).

Plus, YouTube has lost its cool - over the years they got a lot of bad PR for screwing over content creators. Downvotes on every last Rewind are the proof that people stay because they sort of must, not because they bona fide want.

Another relevant HN comment [1] - actually people say the opposite of TFA with regard to discoverability.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26229192