The backwards-compatibility stuff already in this thread is all true, but also they don't know how to remove some things. Microsoft has wanted to entirely replace Control Panel with Settings since Windows 8 came out, but they gave up. And rewriting the whole operating system from scratch would take decades and still inevitably lose compatibility with some of the random old software mentioned here.
MrGabr
What happens if you hold a sign that says "Palestine Action" on it?
That's because human perception exists on a logarithmic scale! It's called the Weber-Fechner law, and it was one of the first studied psychological phenomena, before psychology as a field was even defined.
Interestingly, our sense of the "bigness" of numbers is also logarithmic. This is why there have to be explicit explanations of the massive difference between a million and a billion - our brains instinctively and erroneously think "eh, it's like double."
~edit I can't type~
It's actually way easier to treat sewage than it is to desalinate water: https://www.waterandwastewater.com/how-is-desalination-different-from-water-reclamation/
Neon White, Cyberhook, and Crumble are all excellent, though you might be looking for a more traditional platformer.
Blue Fire is decent and definitely worth checking out while it's $4 right now.
Regarding social media feeds, I have mixed opinions, because you're right about the echo chamber, but I also am only still on any mainstream platform for the memes, and I only want it to show me memes, which it wouldn't do if not for personalized recommendations.
As for games, I don't want my recommendations to be dominated by whatever has the biggest marketing budget and can take over my feed. I mostly play indie games, and I think if my store page wasn't personalized, I wouldn't see nearly as many small games as I do.
Would you be willing to share why you don't like the "corpo spying"? I personally never understood - an online service has to know your requests in order to serve the results to you, and keeping revords of those requests is the only way to have personalized recommendations, which I would rather have than be served ads for games (or music or whatever) I'll never even consider.
VeggieTales is giving them too much credit - there's good moral lessons in there! (And the creator said all the botanically-fruit male veggies are canonically trans??)
ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel off the air for saying Kirk's killer was right-wing and that they're trying to use Kirk's death for political points.
Full story Machinima style series are rare, but if you just want heavy editing and a somewhat coherent plot as opposed to nearly unedited gameplay, Alpharad and LarsBurrito might work. Alpharad heavily edits his videos and usually writes a script to go over the gameplay that does a good job pulling a story out of the footage. LarsBurrito does a similar style, but also often does themed playthroughs where he writes the script to flavor the playthrough to fit whatever character he's roleplaying as.
If you want actual story but are ok with significantly less editing, Mianite is a series I rewatch every once in a while in a similar way you describe. The scripted story doesn't really start picking up until a significant way through season 1, but there is still enough conflict between the different players to make it more than just a Let's Play.
I ended up settling on spells in my left hand, sword in my right, dodging like a maniac.
Right up until the last 3 hours where I respec'd into exclusively two-handed sword + heavy armor because
Spoiler for the very end
the game kinda pushes you into it with the King Arthur gear. Imo respec'ing is too easy, and too necessary. The stat requirements for that armor were so specific and high, and I guessed correctly that I wouldn't need any of my social stats for the rest of the game. Fortunately, I really enjoyed the pure sword combat, so I still had fun, but my character went from light armor spell-sword to plate armor greatsword wielder for just the final dungeon. Kinda odd when you think about it in the RP context.