How YouTube feels lately: (cond-> suggestions (< (rand) .3) (conj ai-slop-nobody-watched)).
It's not "if you scroll suggestions on a particular video's page far enough, you're bound to see slop". The slop is either there or it isn't, with P ~= 0.3. Can't imagine it not being deliberate.
A couple of other observations: • If it is in the list of recommendations, it is also in the four videos recommended at the end of the current video, but it could be just in the four videos list • In that list, it is always the third recommendation We don't have a tinfoil_hat emoji now, do we?..