> can't even imagine how an algorithm thought it runs afoul of a spam or scam policy
Could a competitor cause the algorithm to think that, somehow, perhaps by engaging a service that reports the videos, in bulk, repeatedly from a seemingly diverse set of user accounts?
The market is not that nasty, AFAIK. It's all pretty niche. And YT isn't the biggest marketing channel for this segment, I think. The forums have lively discussions of plugins by people that understand and use the stuff, and whose previous contributions you can easily look up.
It doesn't have to be due to "the market". It just takes one channel owner who thinks that sinevibes is unfairly stealing their attention and decides to be staggeringly petty about it.
Could a competitor cause the algorithm to think that, somehow, perhaps by engaging a service that reports the videos, in bulk, repeatedly from a seemingly diverse set of user accounts?