I subscribe to and have notifications enabled for about 13 channels that upload every single day; I only get notified like once a month about a random video whenever YouTube decides it wants to actually do the thing I have told it to do.

This has not been my experience. I subscribe with bell for almost every channel I follow. If anything I almost get too many notifications, but at least I get to decide whether each notification/video is worth watching or dismissing. The new video notifications aren’t always immediate, but I almost never see a video on my subscription feed that I haven’t already been notified about.