>>259266
>I'm no stranger to escapism, I watch anime, I play Japanese RPGs, but none of those leave me with this hollow feeling.
The difference is that, with vtubers (and arguably streaming in general), you're spending hours watching their streams in the hope that maybe they'll do something funny or cute or cool that will make all the time you invested into them worthwhile and that almost never happens.
It's not like, say, a good anime, in which every minute was specifically crafted with care and talent to provide its viewers with a good viewing experience, and maybe even an actual message of some sort. If you just want the good bits of a stream, your best bet is to wait for the highlights video to get posted to youtube.
Or, as Arin Hanso so eloquently put it before tossing all his ideals out the window, "It's kinda like comparing a snack food to a high class dessert. You can just chomp away mindlessly at snacks because that's how they're made. They're addictive by nature. They just make you reach for more, even if you don't really want more. But a high class dessert takes some slowing down. It demands that you take a moment to enjoy how complex and satisfying it is. In the end you'll always think more highly of the high class dessert because it gave you a feeling of true satisfaction. It's not designed to go on forever, it was designed to finish off a meal. Maybe it was so good you wanted more, but what you had was delicious! And you're glad you had it."