YouTube is so bad. The click driven internet needs to die. There should just be a publicly funded video host with a basic web functionality and an API so third party devs can use it.
Privacy nightmares aside.. So many social media platforms and similar sites have gone way beyond their original scope.
Instagram is the biggest tragedy for me personally because I was a very early user of it. It used to be a fairly niche iPhone app where people shared their own amateur photography and art. It was interesting and fun. Ever since Facebook bought it, it's become a cesspit of ads, politics, thirst traps, spam, bait posts, shitty memes, narcissism, and general low quality content. It also has stupid stories and reels and has just become overcomplicated, trying to cover so many bases.
I remember that original instagram as well. I installed it that time because I loved the filters, which were something new at the time. Never used it for personal use since then.
Yup, there have been countless attempts to paywall creator content but they always flop. The closest we have right now is offering video content through Patreon subscriptions, but creators know they can’t put their main content there because it would destroy their platform
I never understood why „video-podcasts“ never cought on. Everybody would host their own videos or provides peer-to-peer links and it can be presented basically like a YouTube feed in compatible apps.
As a cherry on top, a compatible app could also support YouTube and download videos from there liked piped or invidious.