Refusing to accept a culture of optics is tantamount to not understanding optics though. The reality is that if you work on any kind of product, optics do matter - the perception of something working is often just as important as it actually working.
>All professionals I've ever talked to seem to agree that videos are a terrible form of reference information
It really depends. For most software things, I'd prefer to have written documentation. If it's purely for reference, then yes I agree text is better.
For working on my bicycle or car, often I like watching videos because you pick up on little ways the pros make the jobs easier - for example, the steps might do a poor job of describing the angle and movement of tyre levers, but it's easily understood via video (just an example).
As a result, it can be a much richer experience when you are building skills as opposed to just following a checklist.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.2147/OAJSM.S394044