Honestly, its just the expectation of the masses. Most of the places ours is found dont include video, those that do are because that is what is desired from that particular audience. Good news is on almost all of them you can do what I do; turn off the screen plug in headphones and listen while doing other mundane tasks.
Discussion
until they start to optimize for the people watching, start showing stuff on the screen and commenting, all of that
Right. You kind of have to optimize for one or the other medium.
Plenty of Youtube channels I watch have ~10 minute-ish overviews of some particular thing. Sabine Hossenfelder for science news, nostr:nprofile1qyvhwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddakk7um5wgh8q6twdvhsqgp3ed8nqpenntha396z26mszm2xdmx2vs4clndqfk8fs7g67kulny5q8nxj for urbanist content, etc.
They tend to flip between camera shots of themselves at a desk "waist-up", I.e. news-anchor style, and then other screen-filling content like graphics, maps, etc. This is good, and works particularly well for TV presentation. It would NOT work as a podcast.
But most video podcasts, it's just Zoom in on someone's face, where you can see the ring light reflected in their pupils. Blow that up onto a 70-inch TV and you've got a GIANT TALKING HEAD staring you in the eyes for 2 hours. No variation, just the head.
It's jarring... do people actually do that?
if it's just someone's face that is good, it means it can still be listened to
There is truth to that. We stay away from screen-as-a-need for the most part, simple images to back up statements and the like. We also post all of that type of material when we use it so people can just go look and grab it if they want. My biggest pet peeve is the over abundance of trash AI voice over and other slop ridden stuffs. That will get me out the door before the 10 second mark.