[alx_the_new_guy]

From what I've heared sort of around the block: Shitty ads actually pay more per view. Scam artists have rather fat margins and are more desperate to get their ads shown. IMO the __actual__ solution to youtube ads is unironically to buy premium (and use sponsorblock). Cheap enough and I personally find the experience of ads shoved down my throat actually degrading (so have been using adblockers). Probably would get those 5-10$ worth of ads not being shown in couple evenings/mornings while listening to stuff during commute. Alternatively, something like floatplane, but the the whole yt premuium costs like 3-5 channels on floatplane, and general lack of site-wide subscription tier is a deal-braker to me, so no.

Thing is, video production, storage and distributions are expensive af. There are little to no alternatives explicitly because, especially at small scale, the model is unsustainable. If youtube presumably keeps loosing money to google, there will be no youtube outside of paid tiers, or, indeed, something like floatplane.