Completely correct. The incentives for low-quality clickbait, A/B testing, etc have created a race to the bottom and penalized quality journalism. We need quality journalism. The problem is 90% of journalists now are complete trash. I do wonder now too if the negativity directed at the sorry state of affairs of journalism is counterproductive. Sure, they completely deserve it, but it doesn't help fix the problem. At most it makes people less trusting of the media and willing to think for themselves. That's good and all, but it doesn't directly incentivize the good journalism we need.
I'll admit I was wrong for cheering on the decline of traditional newspapers 10 years ago as the web ate them up. I believed the promise that the free access of information online and removing of institutional incumbents would be a huge blessing to humanity. The dream wasn't wrong, but I think the mass of low-IQ normies easily manipulated by whatever they see on a screen, corporate interests taking over consolidating, and workers with graduate degrees in statistics relentlessly hacking human psychology with technology for maximum addictiveness outbalanced the positives. Turns out I was wrong by not foreseeing those risks. Be careful what you wish for.
Journalists and editors that built careers based upon integrity, quality and following standards have been all but forced out of almost all news rooms. I don't think there are many self-respecting corporate journos left, rather the emotional clickbait journos are the ones running the show