Caveat: this list isn't really for OP, as my tastes for video game content seems pretty removed from theirs (based on their list of pet peeves), but I always like to recommend compelling video essayists when I find them.
Grim Beard - Resident head of Goth Gamer Nation. Specializes in movie length retrospectives of primarily 90s-2000s action and adventure games of a certain trenchcoat wearing persuasion. Typically breaks things down into production history, story breakdown (with a spoiler break to allow folks to skip any big reveals), mechanics review, and bitter recompense (in which he dredges up contemporary reviews and responds to them, good or bad). Interstitial skits break up the sections.
TehSnakerer - another video essayist, he has less of a defined style than Grim Beard (unless English is a style). He's been doing breakdowns of the Yakuza series for years now, and he has a fair amount of content about Sonic, eastern European FPS jank, Watch Dogs jank, and a smattering of other types of games as well, mostly occupying the AA market space. Again, VERY thorough breakdowns is the name of the game.
Avalanche Reviews: From what I gather, a weeb who lives or lived in Japan and focuses on the survival horror genre. Typically goes into more detail than most surrounding A/V details and port comparisons, if that's of interest.
Research Indicates: Not so much a channel recommendation, as I believe it's been mostly dark for like a decade now, but his "Let's Play" (back when that was still a phenomenon mostly constrained to the Something Awful forums) of Jurassic Park: Trespasser set a standard for the format which no one else has touched as far as I'm concerned. Intercutting clips from the movies, passages from the novels, production history, and so on, it feels like a docudrama at times.
Sphere Hunter: occupies the same sort of space as Avalanche Reviews (i.e. Japanese survival horror), but with a very different presenter style.
Accursed Farms / Ross' Game Dungeon: You may know him from the Freeman's Mind series of machinima videos, or, more recently, from spearheading the Stop Killing Games initiative, but he's been cranking out videos looking at retro oddities for years now.
SsethTzeentach - schizophrenia simulator masquerading as a review channel, but, for all of the editing gags and left field references, he still manages to assemble decent recommendations and rationales for why you might check out the game being profiled.
Mandalore Gaming - Sseth, but he's on his meds. Any of his Warhammer game videos are a good intro to his style, but I've got a special place in my heart for when he's taking on batty 90s adventure games, so I'll recommend his Limbo of the Lost video.
Hope someone finds something of interest.
Well, now I can only think of being Sherlock Holmes battling bioweapons, and I fear you've set me up for disappointment!