I just pay for YouTube premium family. We all get add free YouTube. Plus music which we all use. It's a great value and no hastle. More money goes to creators this way as well.
I get it but how else do you expect them to be able to host all these videos and make them globally available? For free? Ad free? Private donations? It's an incredibly useful service that for some reason people can't stand to pay for.
I think the big reasons for most people boil down to one or both of two things:
A) People having 0 trust in Google. I.E. people do not believe that paying for their services will exempt them from being exploited, so what's the point?
B) YouTube's treatment of its content creators. Which are what people actually come to YouTube for. Advertisers and copyright holders (and copyright trolls) get first-class treatment, while the majority of content creators get little to no support for anything.
Do what must be done. Run the company like it was intended to be financially feasible without some future advertising innovation saving it.
But once the product itself begins to actively repulse me, then I stop checking the website as much. Literally everyone I know right now in my immediate family and friend circle is looking or testing a Google alternative because of these reasons.
When you enshittify the experience too much, no one wants it. I have YT premium, but parents who have YT TV due to poor coverage in their area, they don't get YT premium. I don't understand that.
There is a give and take with advertising, you are right. But this is just beyond what I will tolerate. Pause screen ads and ads on my TV home screen are my line. That is my hardware, and that is a service I pay for. Absolutely not.