Well there are a few things to say about your comment. First, YouTube DOES pay content providers. However, most earn money from multiple sources like YouTube, Patreon, sponsors and merchandise sales. Out of those sources youtube is probably the most fickle. Their rules about canceling a channel or removing monetization are arbitrarily enforced and difficult or impossible to appeal.

The same can be said for the way viewers are treated. YouTube is a "free" service. They decided to operate this way, not us. Instead of, for instance, offering the streaming service as a paid subscription, they chose to essentially destroy the product and then ask for payment to fix it ( the so called poison pill). And don't forget the notion that if you are not paying for the product, you ARE the product. I'm pretty sure that YouTube is collecting our information and profiting from it. And if they aren't the parent company absolutely is. When you couple this with the thought that "suggested" content is designed to profit youtube, its easy to make the argument that it wasn't actually free to begin with.

So bottom line is, I think people are fed up with relentless marketing and the form of marketing YouTube has chosen is the worst possible kind of marketing. This leaves those who have been users for a while and want to continue, with the choice of fighting this invasive advertising with ad blockers or paying for the service. The latter of which feels a lot like a reward for reprehensible behavior on the part of youtube.

In short, I think the chief complaint here is HOW youtube has gone about this. Anyway, that's the way I see it. I use a lot of "free" services and youtube is by far the worst type of cost. Pandora, plays ads I have to listen to as the cost for that service but they aren't nearly as bad about it and they never do it in the middle of a song, for instance. I use Wikipedia and they don't market at all, just ask for a donation every now and then. I gave up and just paid for youtube premium. But I have to say it feels a bit like I was extorted, because I feel like I have seen enough ads for one lifetime. If at any point youtube starts showing ads with their paid service I will absolutely drop them like a hot potato, which would be a shame since, like you, I enjoy a lot of the content.