Vee had a good take on this.
He argued the reason all the leftie types suddenly wants to "debate" (something they utterly abhorred five years ago) is that
1. The youtube TOS has been shifted so as to massively favour them. They get to call you a fascist, a cunt, every name in the book and if you retort with similar bad faith you get demonetized.
2. The algorithm has shifted so that like five years ago if you went into an argument and bombed and that argument went viral a bunch of different people would see it. It'd be all over trending and it'd pop up in lots of feeds. Today, the only people that will see something is the respective audiences, and probably mostly the hosts. That means even if you perform badly, (such as screaming like an idiot at someone) the only ones who'll see it are your fans who'll think you did well regardless, and your opponents fans who again will think you did well regardless.
3. Response videos aren't allowed anymore with the TOS cause it falls under harassments. So instead of being able to do a proper follow-up, or even better have a back and forth where you can dismantle your opponents points and make your own, instead you get shouting matches where some pumped up asshole tries to get the best zinger that'll give his fans their dopamine shot.
4. Everyone 'won' this. Ethan's fans gets to pat themselves on the back and gloat about Crowder not engaging with their bullshit, Crowder's fans gets to pat each other on the back about Crowder not engaging with their bullshit, and that Sam guy gets to appear in a context where more people will know his name and so will probably gain subscribers.
Also calling this shit debates is bullshit. A debate should be formal. It should have a moderator, a specific topic, time allotments for each person to speak, as well as a back and forth segments. All the bits. Also a vote before and after to gauge shift in people's opinions. And in the most impossible ideal the point should be to achieve a higher understanding of a subject by rubbing opposing opinions against each other until everyone involved has a bit more insight. And fine that last thing might not be the cause even in actual debates but at least you could fucking try.
All this is is arguing so that fans will get riled up and send you money. Which I'd actually be fine with if they just called it Internet Arguments - get your cheap trashy drama here.
Oh and I wouldn't be surprised if Ethan looses future guests on his show because of this. His already rich and has enough clout he'll have other guests so it won't really hurt him, but it should. This was pathetic.