This.
Millenials hugely attacked TikTok these days. Inevitable happened so suddenly and quick thats why I used word "attacked", because TikTok was bombarded by new users. New OLD-AGED users who ruined established algorythm with their boomers habits and forced it to change.
In my opinion it (algo) is still trying to figure out what the f*ck is happening and trying to achieve stability like old days.
conclusion
easy views will never come back like oldays (exception are the biggest players on tik tok)
I have the same issue. My niche (cooking and food) is devastated. I was worried about my content ("did i get shadowbanned?" etc) but needlessly. I saw many cooking top players have the same viewer counts and very rarely their movies go viral or semi viral.