[anticristi]

While I do agree that I deprive Google of some revenue, not watching ads is not stealing. Otherwise, whole US would be in jail for going to the toilet during Friends commercials. :) Ad blockers simply automate that process for me.

I love supporting creators via Patreon. I hate feeding a giant that will any day turn against both creaters and viewers.

Not sure if I'm rationalising or defending creators.

[ipaddr]

Your pretending to care about creators but giving them nothing. If you stopped visiting youtube but used other platforms and gave sure.. but it doesn't sound like that is happening.

[anticristi]

I'm not pretending. I support my favourite creators via Patreon. Feels more than "nothing". :)

[Silhouette]

The arguments that blocking ads are somehow unethical or depriving a business providing a hosting service of its cut of ad revenue hold very little weight for me.

If a service wants to ensure viewers pay, it would be easy enough for any organisation with the resources to offer large-scale video hosting in the first place to put the content behind a paywall and earn revenue actively from giving access to that content. That way, access without paying would be more difficult and, in most places, probably illegal.

But these services typically don't do that. Why? Presumably they have made a decision that offering the content openly is in their interests, even if they then have to rely on passive revenue channels such as ads, affiliate/referral payments, or promoting associated brands.

In that case, I don't think they have much right to complain when a lot of people access the content they make freely available in legal ways but without contributing to indirect revenue streams when they have no obligation to do so.