Look at all the free image / video services that either never took off or went bust. Especially streaming is quite expensive and isolating only this single aspect of Youtube - cost to operate: what do people expect? Everybody wants few to no ads at all and no subscription either.

As I said, I don’t want to even touch any other topic here like Youtube’s (perceived) quality or their (spicy) business decisions. If you don’t like the product, don’t use it. There is no right to free consumption of entertainment videos. Imagine paying for a taxi like you (don’t) pay for Youtube.

And if you know better, start your own platform.