I consistently hear people on YouTube complain that the subscribe button doesn’t do anything for viewers, now that channel notifications are controlled by the bell. But it does do something: it puts the videos from that channel in your subscription feed, which is readily accessible on all versions of YouTube. So why do people act like it doesn’t exist? I think it’s super convenient, especially if you’re subscribed to a ton of channels and don’t want your notifications feed flooded with new videos.
I have clicked the notification bell for almost all of my subscriptions. From the notification I put the video to my Watch Later if I want to watch it. For example The Escapist has some videos I want to watch and it is easy to curate them with the notifications.