Sponsored reviews and monetized channels do not IMPLY dishonesty IMHO, but they certainly need scrutiny.
"You can't even search his channel for something without bringing up every video because every video description has every product on his channel"
Looks like somebody who is trying to maximize his youtube presence (not a problem in itself) while being inexperienced and simply following bad advice.
What I do wonder about is the scarcity of food related content ... And that a lot of non-knife content appears to have been deleted.
I don't have a problem with sponsored content per se, but it has to be labeled. And in a channel that portrays to give objective reviews...there is just no place for it IMO. I know this is quite common on youtube, but that's not an excuse. That's just a bigger problem.
I agree on the issue of lack of food-content. He seems to fall in the trap a lot of people tend to fall into of studying knives in a vaccuum, maybe even spending more time sharpening than using them for their intended purposes. Same issue you see with people who use rope cutting tests for knives. Great if you actually want your knives to cut ropes, but not very useful if you only want it to cut carrots and onions.
OK, guess I'll be the dude who sticks up for him. I see a whole lot of generalizations and buzzwords in your condemnation, but scarce few examples. Let's take your core complaint that his production values are too high for his level of knowledge. If every YouTube channel with high production values and mediocre informational value were shut down, there'd only be a handful of people left on the site. Anyone who has used the site more than once knows that YouTube channels do not equate to authoritative, encyclopedia-like collections of knowledge. I really don't understand what your fundamental complaint is. Would you rather he use less expensive camera equipment until his knowledge is sufficiently deep to gain your approval? It's such a bizarre complaint, IMO, that I have to assume you're hating just for the sake of hating. Maybe out of jealousy.
No my issue isn't necessarily that the production values are too high, only that the knowledge base is too low. The fact that more channels suffer from this problem isn't an excuse. The overwhelming amount of cooking or knife 'instructions' that give bad or simply wrong advice are a thorn to my eye as well. And the reality is many people do seem to take it for 'expert advice'.
The main reason I don't have a lot of examples is because I wasn't exactly keeping a list as I went through some of them when they popped into my feed. Sorry, it's been a few weeks and frankly I can't be bothered to go back and watch them again.
I don't know why I'd be jealous. Personally I get the idea that my level of knowledge on the matter is no different or even higher than his... and
I don't consider myself expert enough to create such instructional material for a bigger audience. I can share a few tips, experiences or suggestions, but IMO instructional series should be left to the few people who actually have a damn clue and don't mix up good advice with bad advice.
Let's take the money making complaint. A channel that size probably makes anywhere from a couple hundred to maybe a thousand bucks a month on ad revenue and referral links. That could be enough to pay his rent many months, depending on how much he's getting. He's definitely a businessman, like many youtubers are, and I'm not sure how anyone could miss that. It's one thing to not like him - that's normal and completely your right to do - but honestly, who are you to say that he can't feed his family just because you don't think he's smart enough or he doesn't do things to your approval? How can you spite a businessman for trying to make money? I mean, come on. Let's not play coy, no one is taking advice from any YouTube video completely at face value - and if they are, and it's bad advice, then that's their own fault. There are a lot of different kinds of channels on YouTube, and I for one am glad that at least one of them is making videos about knife sharpening and whetstone use. Don't like it? Let's see you make a better channel then.
The whole businessman argument is BS. By your reasoning I could legitimize slave traders and drug smugglers. Most of those have rents to pay and families to feed as well. Yes I most certainly can complain about how people make money if I think their ethics or business practices suck, or the quality of work is lacking. Everyone does. Heck, why is there a CheeseKnightsToGo embargo here? For that very reason.
Take the reviews of the Dalstrong knife for example (happened to pop in my feed a while back). It's a knife that has some pretty obvious issues - especially if you go through their own promotional materials. Yet he only gives glowing reviews. That means he is either too incompetent to notice them, or it is sponsored content which isn't labelled as such (more likely). Take your pick. The latter is extremely dishonest IMO and actually illegal in some places.