What's the difference between that which optimized for what you call "engagement" and what the average user wants?
Presumably the best thing for Netflix is to have a happy userbase, so why do you assume it wouldn't optimize for that?
Presumably the best thing for Netflix is to have a happy userbase, so why do you assume it wouldn't optimize for that?
People want joy, education, entertainment, etc. from watching a video.
But there may be other ways of appealing to people (addiction, insecurity, base stimulation) which boost engagement but which do not give users what they want.
Obviously on even slightly longer time scales, users will gravitate toward services that do not trade their health for engagement, but equally obvious is that many of today's apps are not optimizing for long time scales.
Netflix cannot make you happy