: That bit baffled me actually, but for some reason I skipped commenting on it.
: I don't see the sense in saying you shouldn't put essential info in your
: captions. Essential info is the most important type! So if you consider
: your captions to be your guiding information source - as I surely do - any
: essential info should certainly be in them.

Hang on, there has been a misunderstanding here. My fault I think. I meant to say YouTube Annotations when I said this:

Sometimes people disable features like captions wholesale due to others misusing them, so only make such content additive and not essential.

So I was actually agreeing with you, but from a different perspective, that 'YouTube annotation not ideal.'

: How common it is wasn't relevant to my rationale though. Even if practically
: nobody bothered to turn annotation on, I still wouldn't feel obliged to
: try and compensate for that, if doing a video designed as an annotated
: product. I'd only be interested in coping for people willing to watch the
: video properly .

That's starting to sound elitist though, and not in a good way.

: I'd associate that 'rule' more with TV & film though. I wouldn't be too
: quick to follow TV/film norms in gameplay videos, which are a different
: type of thing in some ways (e.g. often being a handful of minutes long).
: It might suit folk who are out to try and maximize watching, but other
: people might prefer to give priority to the way they want things to
: unfold, even if that might mean losing some of the more casual viewers.

TBH, if a person is creating gameplay videos, it is unlikely that that their 'artistic vision' is superior or even well considered. And they would do well to take a few lessons from those that have been making videos for decades. To make a video that is just BETTER - not to pander to anyone.

There are such things as short films, music videos, commercials, instructional videos which are more similar in length or content. There is a lot of crossover in the realm of 'good practice' even if you don't consciously realise it.