The only thing that separates watching a playthrough of somebody playing a game without commentary, likely at a high level with a guide, and watching a playthrough either live/on-demand of somebody playing themselves is that the latter is usually done with curiosity both on the player's side like you said (not knowing what happens) and on the viewers side (not knowing if the player will be able to solve something, wondering how they will solve something, or how long it will take). Phil somehow combines the 2 into a mess of something nobody would want. Not to mention that Phil, even being handheld by his chat or a guide, still sucks at the game.
I have no clue how Phil has missed this. If I'm playing a game for myself to get 100%, sure the guide is telling me what to do, cool. I would never want to watch a friend play a game with a guide. There's no fun in that.
Not to get psych side on this but you can really see Phil literally never had friends growing up, because no friend would want to watch him play like he does, nor would they want to have him bark at them to tell him what to do next. Not to mention you can't laugh when he fails because he'll throw a fit. Phil makes it so obvious that he's been a loser for decades, long before Youtube & the FGC.