yeah I see it in this example where there is a minimal background in common for each image to bounce off of

>mostly because clickbait is what you want, generally

As I have mention to Car once or twice, I personally don't care for ClickBait and I try to keep it to minimal.   I try to go for "clever" in my designs.


>I think it's mostly the noise of color, if you could filter all the images into two standard colors.

Do you mean something like this: 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9e3UCcU00TRTLY4WGwGgUMhArUnwb2Iy

Wumbo

i wouldn't call it clickbait, but i would say on the average, overall, it's often too much to look at in one thumbnail. I think it's mostly the noise of color, if you could filter all the images into two standard colors... well idk that could be boring. thumbnails are tough and i don't have good design intuitions about them. mostly because clickbait is what you want, generally