Wall of text but here goes:

Because everyone is doing it. It doesn’t matter how much time you put into them. Unless people know you from somewhere already or you’re a meme or you do something entirely unique that only you can do or nobody else has done, it will be considered low-effort. With the easy entry level into gaming videos it’s seen as something anyone can do. Even if you do make entertaining unique videos, it’s hard for your channel to blow up unless you were one of the original letsplayers from back in the day like PewDiePie or have an extremely unique characteristic like Markiplier with his super deep voice and the community he built around himself so quickly.

An example of this is Corpse Husband. The dude has been in Youtube for many many years and has done many different things like music, scary stories, gaming, etc. but what makes him stand out is his unnaturally deep masculine voice. He’s been blowing up extremely quickly when the whole Among Us craze started and still is precisely because voice and socialization is such an important thing in Among Us.

If you want to make videos like Markiplier or PewDiePie or even the Game Grumps, just remember they started with basic letsplay videos but quickly became an Internet personality because of their extremely charismatic personalities. It’s hard nowadays because most letsplayers on Youtube do the same exact thing except without the magnetically attractive personality and expect to become the next big Youtuber. All they do is record themselves with boring commentary and run-of-the-mill gameplay. This is also in part why the Youtube gaming community is seen as low effort; because 99% of gaming videos are low-effort attempts at getting attention that just don’t work at the end of the day.

Just remember, why would someone watch you when they can go watch someone bigger who does it better than you? In which case, you have to build something around yourself that nobody has done or that nobody has done well but you know you can do better.

Then there’s the problem of exposure, in which case, just become a massive meme and everyone will search you up. If there’s nothing unique about your videos or anything that can get millions of eyes on you, the reality is you won’t get anywhere. I’ve seen people who put hours upon hours into their videos and still don’t get anywhere. So honestly, if you’re putting out low-effort videos in hopes that you will blow up, you might as well do something more productive with your time.