My hardware/software or my eyes are borked because I cannot tell much of a difference between YouTube vs Instagram side-by-side. Gosh. If it is not my eyes, what are the recommendations? What is the top 1 (or 5) reasons I cannot see it if it is not my eyes? Do I need to upgrade my monitor? I have a relatively recent GPU but it is not a beast and I use a HDMI -> VGA converter.

The pictures, however, look god-awful! I presume the video is filled with stuff like these.

The videos are more subtle and it's not apparent in every frame. Look for things in the background snapping into and out of focus, weird textures appearing on Will's head and neck, and people's faces looking unnaturally sharp at the edges, while their skin is uncannily smooth (sort of like Max Headroom.)