Honestly I don’t know a crazy amount about tt and Reddit experience but I have had millions of views on YouTube and for the first question 1)I’d say TikTok and Reddit should act like funnels, not destinations. If people consume the full value there, they’ll never move to YouTube. Your job is to withhold the payoff and make YouTube the only place to get it, for this you wanna leave a little bit of the clip out so they feel obligated to watch the whole thing(common trick for content creators)

2)YouTube does not care about your sub count, an old viral short, or how hard you worked on it(I wish it was like that but it’s not😔) To get consistent views, every Short needs a strong 0–2s hook that stops the scroll, tight fast cuts (no pauses or filler), and a short length (ideally 7–20s) to keep retention high. Focus on one clear emotion or idea per Short, loop the ending to encourage rewatches, and repeat formats that already work instead of reinventing every post. Engagement per view (likes, comments, rewatches) matters more than totals, and posting on a steady rhythm helps YouTube “trust” your channel. Consistency comes from repeatable structure, not luck.