[patchymcnoodles]

I have a very different experience. For me the algorithm works pretty well. And I use youtube a lot since many years. Also have the paid subscription so no ads anymore (beside sponsor ads of course).

I get a lot of content I want and interested in, but I also have a long list of subscriptions. Sometimes I run into a rabbit hole, where I watch some completely different content and youtube then shows that for me for a while, even after I'm not interested anymore. But that is just for some days and then it stops showing it on my home feed.

So for me it does exactly what I want it to do.

Now I wonder, why is there such a massive difference in the experience?

[TrianguloY]

I was going to comment this. My experience matches yours, the home page shows videos I may be interested on watch, and the subscriptions page shows videos from my subscriptions. Watch something new and you get related videos for a couple days, but ignore those and they disappear. I also like the occasional videos from old subscriptions or old watched videos, reminders from time to time.

I do not have the paid subscription though, but I do use only android (never web).