I'm regularly surprised that people are willing to block YouTube ads. I know that Google gets that advertising money too, but you're also blocking revenue that the channel owner would otherwise get. I suppose it might depend what you're watching, but most YouTubers aren't big business, they're just individuals.

YouTube Premium is one of the few subscriptions I am completely happy to pay.

It doesn't have to go through Google. Lots of us support the people they follow through patreon et al, I don't need to make the gigacorp even richer than it is. They have enough.

Many people are not aware that for smaller creators, Google forces ads on their videos (without consent) and takes all the revenue

when they stop placing ads arbitrarily in the middle of a sentence or scene Ill stop blocking them

Without ad blocking YouTube is simply unwatchable / unbearable.

Youtube decides the thresholds, the payouts, the promotional algorithms.

I inherently disagree with the ad model of business. Intentionally worsening a product with ads to convince people to pay to remove them is just rewarding them for enshitification.

So on that front I'd prefer YouTube go out of business so that something like Nebula can take its place. Or the only videos left at\re the ones doing it as a hobby and not as a job.