I can't stand those because he never actually answers what makes them great...he just kind of analyzes the chords and tells you what they are, and plays some of the melodies. There's a lot of je ne sais qua about composing "great" music and I don't think I've seen a YouTube Explainer personality really able to capture that magic in their explanations.

The first 100+ videos in that series are pretty great. He was often able to obtain the master record and play each track individually. Hearing all these cool little details that usually get lost in the mix really changes your perspective on a song. He also goes over chords and stuff in these videos, but also adds some context and explains why these things work well together in a really simple way.

I feel like this has been missing in more recent videos though.

That's so true, and yet, I think your answer also explains why "what makes them so great videos" can work, in a way. The explanations given by Beato or whoever may be lacking in terms of the true why (is there really one?), but the enthusiasm of the presenter and the segments they choose to highlight can focus your attention on certain parts of the music and give you some of the insight they (apparently) have, even with it being unspoken. That's how it works for me anyway.

One thing I often notice is that if you listen to music with other people, you hear new things in it, because you are partially hearing it the way they do through reading their reactions.

He does but it's inferred.

Song writing is an art it's not like a technology where you can point to power usage and how v 2 is better than v1 to show the thing is now better, great.

He goes into great detail about the entire songs it's never just "point to a thing" and say "there it is". He'll describe how the choice of the wording, the chords, what scale e.g. "mixolydian vs dorian", how it all combines to make the song great.

He doesn't do any of that in his video about Running Up That Hill. Can you point to a favorite video of yours that I might be able to check out for more of what you described?

One of the (or maybe both) Nirvana ones are pretty good. He goes into how Cobain uses upper extensions/suspensions to give a melancholic feel. I think one of the Pearl Jam ones he throes the vocal chart on there too.

He's at his best when he's analyzing the vocal melody against the chord harmony (ie: they're using the #4 on the F for a Lydian feel to the 3rd on the Am)

Rick's "What Makes this Song Great?" does mention quite a lot maybe each is different maybe you'll like a different one. He has one on Rush song Limelight try this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P-yUOlOC5M&t=877s