I feel your frustration and agree with you on some points DC, but overall that is a pretty weak take.
I don't think "double standard" means what you think it means. Different standards for different products is not a double standard. A YT video is not an addon plane. YTers are constrained by the conditions of producing on YT, especially if they want to make a little ad money. To please the algorithm, they have to put out a vid every couple of days, if not every day. The content has to be timely. And, they charge me nothing for it. When you release a new plane every 2 days and charge us zero for it, you can talk about double standards relative to YT vids. "Professionalism" has to be assessed in context of the product. Also, to be fair, many of the best sim YTers are working commercial pilots, which must make it hard to produce these vids at all, and I'm happy if they channel their professionalism into their day job.
That said, I would go farther than you and say that not one single YTer offers well enough researched reviews to be worth taking seriously. Some undoubtedly are worse than others. I don't watch all the ones you cited as being good, but I used to watch Into the Blue. I had to give him up, I never made it to the end of one of his videos because I made up a drinking game where I take a shot every time he says, "As I say, ..." and then repeats something he said a few minutes ago. By the end of his vids I was always unconscious. Seriously, that guy is a master at stretching 5 minutes of content into a 30 minute video. But again, he's doing what YT's algorithm commands. Substantively, although he's been a bit better lately, ITB often showed the pressure to get a video out within a day or two of a product's release by producing an ill-researched review in which he sometimes confessed to not even knowing the most basic performance data about the subject airplane to compare with the addon. Why not research it before making the video? No time, hours count on YT, someone will steal your views if you don't get that vid out today. Mostly he erred on the side of being too generous to the addon, which of course, devs are perfectly happy with.
There are YT gaming review channels in which the YTer takes weeks to put out a review video on a new release, does a full play-through, then puts out a beautifully produced, comprehensive review. Angry Joe comes to mind as one that I enjoy. But when you have 3m subs and literally millions of people enjoy your content for its own sake, you are playing on a different level than any flight sim YTer and can afford to do that. A few YTers do this a little bit, taking a more detailed look at addons released some time ago, but sim YTers tend to be rather lacking in charisma and can't really carry a channel on such content. Plus, as you say, many of them simply lack the knowledge and experience to do an informed review, no matter how much time they take.
Forums like this one are a much better place to get informed, thoughtful insights on new products, but I'm sure they have far less penetration than YT vids. I suppose most buyers go on nothing but the publisher's hype, which leads to disappointment sometimes.
August