It's to add condescension.
That was my assumption. Things like "um" and "uh" tend to be silence-fillers, among other things (see below). It's weird to see them being typed-out, and I've noted an uptick in how often I see it being done.
Yep.
There's something about internet culture that rots our ability to have conversations with others. It's something I've also noticed in myself (it's easy to complain about everyone else) as someone who, sheepishly, has snuck in a juvenile "Um..." when I think I've really got'em good.
I suspect the uptick in just this sort of rot going mainstream. Like instead of bringing your in-person social skills online when the internet was newer, and then becoming corrupted over time, people are just born into the rot from a young age.
And frankly it takes eternal vigilance to stay a noncombative and fair online.
Of course.
> ...probably aren't in the target audience for YouTube Premium.
True. It's unclear if OP fits that description though. Re-read OP's comment.
> ...there's no point to having video.
Agreed. I think it most cases, there is no video for still image YouTube content. Just, you know, a still image. I don't know the extent this is true, nor do I know OP's use case. Assuming that OP is interested in music, the video component shouldn't be a real issue. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6007071?hl=en
Nit: Not sure what this is supposed to mean. Is this an attempt to mimic how you speak aloud?
>Consider the Official YouTube app, with a paid YouTube Premium subscription.
That is definitely an option, but people who use things like youtube-dl or apps like NewPipe probably aren't in the target audience for YouTube Premium.
>Videos with still images (many songs) shouldn't be much data at all over the audio alone.
Part of the point is if you never intend to watch the content, but only want to listen to it, there's no point to having video.