Is getting up and going to pee during an ad break the same as piracy? Do I steal half the content if I close my eyes during the ad? What about muting and switching tabs? Do I pay with my inconvenience if I do it manually? Is this just about the creator getting paid, or about the poor company that's advertising to me as well?
Sure, YouTube deserves the money. They should find a more reliable way than third party advertisements to get the money.
Advertisers pay content creators money directly to feature sponsored ad-reads on their video, knowing full well that a lot of people will skip straight through them. If I skip an ad-read, I'm not stealing from the advertiser, even though the advertiser is expecting to get money from me. The advertiser has paid the money to deliver this ad-read to me, but I'm not paying them back.
Similarly, YouTube keeps on hosting "free" video content with third party ads, knowing full well that a lot of people will block them. If I block ads, YouTube has paid for the content to be delivered to me, but I'm not paying them back.
Both are investments that don't always see return on the individual level. If everyone stops buying sponsored products that appear in ad-reads, advertisers will stop paying for ad-reads. If everyone starts blocking ads, YouTube will find other ways to get compensation for the storage and bandwidth.
