Don’t know about youtube, but I have a similar experience at twitter. I believe they probably see blocking, muting or reporting as “interaction” and show more of the same as a result.
On youtube on the other hand, I never blocked a channel and almost never see militaristic or right wing stuff (despite following some gun nerds, because I think they are funny).
It is great for pattern recognition (we use it to recognize damages in pipes) and probably pattern reproduction (never used it for that). Haven’t really seen much other real life value.