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.
Maybe i misunderstood your question but i’ve also heard many say they weren’t getting all the content from the channels they subbed to exactly on the subscriptions feed. Personally i’ve never noticed this but that’s why some channels started recommending to also hit the bell.