Well, I enjoy Jesse's work, and I have about 30 years of Japanese and Okinawan karate experience ( and some boxing , judo, tai chi, tae kwon do, Wing Chun, aikido and wrestling ). So I feel qualified to express a view on his content.
I remember the first 2 UFC, they were bizarre but exciting events, you could literally see teeth fly out of people's mouths. I mean who could ever forget Keith Hackney's TKO of an opponent who outweighed him by 400 pounds ?
I know some experienced Karate people who take Jesse with a grain of salt, but I like his willingness to confront the myths and straight up bull**** that's associated with Karate. I don't agree with everything he says, but I am always willing to listen to him.
Having said all that, I wouldn't fancy my chances against a BJJ black belt in a real fight, my only hope would be keeping the fight standing up or sprawling ( from my wrestling and judo background) and landing a significant punch ( from my boxing arsenal) - karate in its modern form is not designed to fight grapplers at all.
It's not totally useless, but against a grappler who has some reasonable submissions it's not very useful either.
Speaking of Youtubers what do you think of Icy Mike, Hard2Hurt ?
Pretty much on the same page here BM.
Jesse has done the work and put in the effort to really look into the evolutin of Karate from Japan and Okinawa. Like you, I don't always agree with his take but his thought process does make sense. A valuable resource for martial artists on YT for sure.
Having been choked out by a BJJ Blue Belt with his freaking SHOULDER while I had him in a full on guillotine, legs wrapped and everything, I know to respect BJJ.
That said...
Don't count yourself out in a street encounter. BJJ is great... But they have their blind spots just as the strikers did in the early MMA days. For one, just adding in a weapon of any kind to the matrix of a fight changes things radically. And just like when strikers DIDN'T train to stop the takedown or understand the use of the clinch to stymie the grapplers, BJJ's weapon work is limited at best. You don't want to engage a grappler on the ground. And you wouldn't want to mess with a person that has extensive training in weapons, purpose built (stick/club, staff, blade) or improvised. Who is to say your fight with a BJJ man HAS to be "honorable" with both parties not pulling something? Then there's just the good ole' "Punchers Chance".
I was at a seminar in the early 2000's for Paul Vunak's PFS. One of his highest ranking instructors was a BJJ Black Belt who also taught Kali and Savate with full instructor credentials in both. I can't remember the name off the top of my head. Anyways, he told a story about how his BJJ students didn't understand why he taught and practiced those other things if he had a Black Belt in BJJ, you know "the ultimate martial art"?
He did two things. First he asked the guy who made the query one time to get on the mat and take the usual BJJ ready stance. He told him to come in and attack. When the guy did he basically did a quick side step and delivered a light Savate toe kick to his mid section which dropped the dude quickly. A LIGHT toe kick. Then he took the class outside and said they were gonna roll in the concrete parking lot. As soon as they went out every student went and cleared the ground of all the crap, broken glass, rocks, various detritus and THEN they rolled and he pointed out... You ain't gonna have a street fight on a sterile mat. Intentionally take someone to the ground in an improvised street fight and the environment becomes a factor. Then there's various "dirty" tricks like biting and spitting that believe it or not can stymie or reverse the situation for the grappler. Vunak has an entire curriculm on biting to counter the grappler.
As for Icy Mike? Love that short pissed off muthaeffer. Like Jesse I don't always agree with him and sometimes, hell, ALL the time his manner of getting his message across blurs the points he's trying to make, but he puts his ass on the line regularly. In many ways when I see what he's doing with his message I think of what he's doing as the very soul of what Jeet Kune Do is all about.
I've got a few of his videos embedded here. Great material.