Very annoyingly youtube-dl refuses to support bitchute for reasons that aren't exactly clear: https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/14052

If I can't get data off bitchute easily using de facto standard tools (I get that I could use a bittorrent client, but that's beyond the point), I have little interest in putting data on it.

Doesn't seem so? Seems to me that some user @tv21 was arguing against it for some reason, and @dstftw locked the conversation to avoid the argument. The issue is still open, implying it's free to be worked on. Has anyone submitted a PR?

It's open-source so... just fork it.

(I know you're not a developer, but this is a perfect use-case for forking and continuing.)

Easier to just not put anything worthwhile on bitchute to be frank. youtube-dl needs constant vigalent updates to keep it working, maintaining a fork of it is a serious long-term commitment.

Just pull in updates from them... No need to maintain it all by yourself.

For very loose values of credible.