My assumption is the youtube (or any) algo optimises for engagement so more ads can be sold.

If I pay a monthly subscription the incentive can be paid off so I can decide instead. I assume it would be simple to allow people to adjust sliders on predetermined scales. I assume most people would select against "outrage" for example which seems sorely needed. That way the feed can be adjusted to what I really value rather than what seems to generate engagement at any cost.

This would allow companies to earn money from customers rather than taking a detour via advertisement, which we seem to agree is bad. Otherwise we wouldn't pay to have it go away. The "user attention as product" brings all kind of issues which this would seem to fix.

I'm reluctant to pay for youtube premium because I can simply install an adblocker. Part of me doesn't see why I should pay. The ability to influence my feed directly would seem like a much more valuable feature.