There's definitely a lot of unscrupulous "how to make money" content out there. At the same time, a lot of people watch woodworking channels and find entertainment in imagining themselves doing it even if it never happens. Maybe you could say the same for imagining running a woodworking business. Adjacent is watching product reviews for categories of products you will never buy.

Oh I watch a lot of stuff I'll probably never do myself. Its akin to watching New Yankee Workshop with Norm. I was watching someone piece together a broken lambo engine/car because the engineer in me just likes that stuff. I've watched a lot of car reviews too mostly for entertainment. I'd respect a channel more if they started a second channel that was about their business rather than co-opt their main/existing channel about woodworking into a small-biz focus.

Ah yes the transition from “unique thing I like” to “annoying thing that gets more clicks”. It’s like the friend you’d talk about economics with becoming a crypto evangelist.

People don't think 'I should do that'. Instead, they think 'I haven't got a clue hot to better off myself, I'm stuck'. Then comes along an easy course and obviously they think they'll get unstuck by purchasing it.