How Important Do You Think Branding Is On YouTube etc?

I’d separate recognition from decoration. I’m with Podmon, a fictional Farming Simulator 25 story series, so the question I’d use is whether a returning viewer can recognise the kind of story before reading every word.

A consistent typeface, a small recurring mark and a familiar composition can provide continuity, while the main image and title explain that episode’s particular conflict. I’d avoid making every thumbnail so similar that viewers cannot tell one chapter from another.

For your logo change, I’d keep the channel name, thumbnail layout and colours steady initially and change the avatar alone. That leaves returning viewers some familiar signals rather than replacing the whole identity at once. A simple design check: shrink the avatar to comment size and put three recent thumbnails side by side. Is the name still readable, do they belong together, and are the videos distinguishable?

I’d spend enough time to make that system usable, then put it into a short style sheet instead of redesigning it for each upload.