Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to disagree with ya here. :/ YCHs are nice for both the commissioner and commisisonee. For someone who wants art of their character but doesn't know exactly what they want, they're basically an already-commission piece, in sketch form, that they can buy already knowing what it'll look like. This makes them a lot more open and accessible, and people who normally don't send custom commissions for fear of them not turning out how they imagine often have YCHs to claim with the peace of mind knowing they're paying for something they already know they will like, instead of paying up front for a sketch they don't know if they'll approve of or not. And for the artists themselves, I've used YCH many times not just for this purpose, but also for practice and to improve on my art. When I'm commissioned for specific piece after specific piece, some of my creativity or freedom gets limited and an artist can get rusty being limited to very specific requested poses one after another. YCHs is basically an artists' liberty to draw whatever they feel like drawing, improve while doing so, and still make money off of it. The 'art slave' you mentioned is also a popular thing, but again, limits an artists' creativity- they must draw whatever a specific person says. YCHs allow room for freedom, creativity, growth.

Now, I can completely understand when things get out of hand, if there are too many being uploaded or more YCHs than custom commissions- just like everything in the world, YCHs should be done in moderation. So if the complaint is that 'there are just too many of them', that's not really a valid complaint against YCHs in particular- everything overdone can be complained for that. I mean, 'there are too many chibis', 'too many ponies' 'too many FNAF' 'too many ____' I can understand irritation at something overdone, but... YCHs, specifically, are good things that are positive for both the artist and the purchaser. And even still... you can dislike them all you like, but there's no need to also make those who enjoy or use them feel bad or ream on them. :/

Well, okay, I can see a lot of your points. I think what bothers me is that, the artists I used to like more, now do mostly YCH almost at the exclusion of the kinds of art they sued to do. And there's still maybe that 1% of YCH I end up liking, like  aluminemsiren's YCH here that became this.

I understand the concern of some artists completely leaving custom commissions and entirely going to YCH- it can become a bit cumbersome to see nothing but YCHs in your submission alerts day after day- but again, most of it is a case of what suits an artist better, what they need at the moment both in regards to finances, commissioners/watchers, and artistic freedom. And either way, there's always the unwatch button. :/ I can't say I approve of, or enjoy, a specific kind of commission that I'll not name that I see absolutely flooding FA lately, but the thing is, it's only benefiting both parties actually involved in the art and it's not really my business what each artist on here chooses to do with their time and money... As for myself, I have done YCHs in the past and plan to keep doing them for the reasons I stated above, but just as there's a good side to artistic creativity and freedom on YCHs, there's also a good side to doing specific commissions and having a set pose laid out that an artist must create. There's good aspects to both of them so there's definitely a balance there that many people gauge differently depending on their own tastes and preferences.

I don't like YCHs that involve a rule34 character.. specifically characters like Bowser, Charizard, etc. I participated in just one out of curiosity. It ended up being one of the most expensive commissions i have undertaken. Luckily, it was special because my mate was able to win his spot. However we both didn't care for the other two random people in the pic. I would've rather commissioned the artist outright for a new image involving the characters we wanted in. Specifically there were two other crocs that i would not have minded sharing the pic with.

Some artists are now going all 100% YCH and not doing any other types of commissions, which gets very annoying. I am now unable to commission some artists i wouldn't have minded getting art from because I'd be worried I'd be paired with some random smuck. Know what i mean?

I don't like YCHs either. If FA ever got a tag system, that's the first thing I'd filter, followed by scat and gore. Anything else, I may not like it generally, but maybe one picture I will like so I let my brain do the filtering.

YCHes clutter my watchbox with unfinished scribbles and it's exceedingly annoying to see twelve of the same image when they're done, with minor recolors. Not much of a fan of the whole "adoptables" things either, especially when folks are doing them by the batch.

Not a fan of YCHs either solely because they typically become more expensive than a regular commission. And that's for one slot in the picture. A three character commission should probably cost like $85 on average, right? It seems strange to me for someone to shell out that much for one character. :/

I mean hey, do what you want with your money, but that doesn't make it any less strange for me.
It's worse because I would gladly shell out money for a standard commission, but knowing I could never afford a YCH I don't bother. :/