Some people just like following other people’s life around. It’s the reality TV on today. You can create strong parasocial bonds with people who don’t know you.
I don’t personally follow any such channels, but I do follow other small Internet celebrities and grew do care about them. Like I was shocked when Simon Griez had brain cancer, and I feel sorry for Diane the physics girl for her 3 year long covid battle. These people have no idea who I am.
Many times these channels start small and many users follow them since the beginning, so a bond naturally grows. Then the quality of videos grows as the income starts coming in.
Nothing stops YouTube from adding ads to the video feed used in newipe if they really wanted.