I hadn't heard of the YouTube thing. Doesn't matter because I don't use it, but it's still outrageous.
I am willing to watch an ad or two every 15 minutes, so long as they are no more than a minute total of wasted time. This ultra-monetization crap where it's a minute and a half every 5 minutes is why people use AdBlockers and pirate media.
Be reasonable as a business, and you'll get a reasonable response. Flood my free time with ads, and you get AdBlock and piracy.
It's called PeerTube, which is Fediverse/ActivityPub service for video.
The problem is that with video there's a larger separation between users and content creators. Services like Mastodon and Lemmy can grow just from users switching to them because users themselves also post the content, but PeerTube isn't going to grow until the people making videos start posting them there.
You're neglecting the fact that fediverse tube instances can't possibly take the load and the volume of videos being uploaded on YT. That is why almost none of them have open registrations, only admin approved registrations (you apply, than the admin chooses whether to approve or deny your application).
Arguably the bigger problem is the sheer volume of video data. Any even slightly successful independent YouTube clone will be wiped out by the hosting costs.
that's what the problem is. youtube has a wide range of users who got cozy to the platform where many of them doesn't even care about using adblockers. also, content creators got used to it. so making them shift their platform to something new is harder than making them shift from reddit to lemmy or twitter to mastadon.