I would love to do that but unfortunately Network effect means that a lot of creators don't upload their video anywhere else. It is unfortunately becoming the default for everything.

I paid for Vimeo and other services in the past. But I will not pay for Youtube/Google

YouTube spent about ten years convincing their users that videos will be offered with only unobtrusive banner ads or short, pre-video ads. Then once the network effects were safely locked in, they changed it to a protection racket where multiple loud, frequently offensive ads (including for scams!) will interrupt a one-minute video and new ads are triggered by so much as rewinding, but you can pay to not see them.

I'd much rather support a different platform, myself.

Who asked for Google to be the custodian of our culture? I don’t owe them rent just because they were so presumptuous to put themselves into that position.

There used to be a thriving variety of video hosting sites.

That's exactly how I feel as well. I don't want them to be the default but here we are.

And I'm definitely not going to pay which would encourage/send the signal that this is what we want.

For me, it's not the concept of paying. I'd gladly pay someone to host YouTube. I just don't think paying Google is a good thing.

Yes. I'm fine with them dying and a better company taking over that I would then support.

If they weren't already stealing my data, I'd gladly pay them for ad-free. My data is worth far more to me and goog won't even offer me an option to not steal it because it is worth far more to them as well.

Yes.

That’s the 21st century equivalent of becoming an ascetic monk.

That’s like asking a large segment of the population to stop using the Internet altogether. YouTube is basically a utility now, you can’t avoid it in many cases.

Or just pay for premium (it’s worth it)