Define educational.

Watching stupid Call of Duty videos as a teenager is what allowed me to learn English (I am not a native English speaker) and I now owe my entire career to that.

On the other hand, proper “educational” stuff has yet to make me a penny.

Just because it doesn’t look “educational” (or should I say boring) to you doesn’t mean the kid isn’t learning stuff by watching (or listening to) the video. Chances are, those people are doing real-life stuff that is never taught in school and they would otherwise try to figure it out by themselves via trial and error.

That's pretty funny. When I was in college I had a roommate from Colombia and mentioned that I'd like to learn some Spanish. He enthusiastically recommended watching the Spanish language soaps on Telemundo, he told me watching American soaps is how he learned most of his English.

I edited my comment and added a link to a typical video. The child watching this is already fluent in English.

That video is stupid but it is worse than reality TV shows or cartoons? It’s entertainment. Doesn’t always have to have a further purpose beyond passing time and satisfying curiosity.

My comment about English was just an example, when completely stupid (by my own admission) videos still somehow still managed to contribute to my life and career.

Is it really substantively different from “imaginative play”?

My own kids watch similar stuff quite a bit, and while I don’t enjoy watching it with them, they enjoy it and talk about it with their friends. They even make their own (private) videos for fun.

Ask any kid age six to twelve or so these days what they want to be, and most will reply “I want to be a YouTuber!”