I've been watching tutorial videos on software packages recently, and one really nice use case for annotations is that if there is out of date information in a specific sentence, they can just annotate it with the newer info instead of redoing the entire video.

It's also helpful when they use the links as intended, like the video links to its own follow up video at the end.

Yea, this is the case with almost every channel I watch. I've found annotations and links to be used responsibly and to usually be helpful.

I can totally see how these features could be abused by some channels, though.

I can echo what the others have already commented, which is that in the overwhelming majority of videos from channels that I have subscribed to, the annotations have been useful.

Getting rid of them entirely would get rid of an easy and much needed way for the uploader to add corrections and other additions after the fact.

I do see videos where the annotations are rather annoying, but I don't think it's so often that it has been a terrible problem overall, and I have a suspicion that on those videos the annotations have not been the only annoying aspect.

Edit: I just saw further down that annotations are actually deprecated, and now I really wonder how people can add corrections to videos? Does that mean I have to read the description of every video I watch?

How to add corrections to post? Well, reply to your own video with a blank post so its top post and reserved. Edit it to add corrections.

I just regard annotations and commercials (which aren't blocked by uBlock Origin) as part of a video. If you (or I) don't enjoy a video (for whatever reason), stopping watching it is always an option to consider.