I don't get your point. I pay for services wherever I can, including search and AI, and see few adverts online despite not using a blocker. The main source of ads I see is in news articles when following links from places like HN, which is because the news industry hasn't developed the microtransactions mechanism it would need to allow readers to pay while retaining the experience of being able to follow links freely to many sources without having to maintain subscriptions to huge numbers of paywalled sites they only occasionally read. I live in hope that they will eventually do so, though.
The only flogging I've seen has been of Google for daring to offer a way of paying to use Youtube without ads, but clearly the whining on social media hasn't prevented it being economically viable as they're still offering it ten years later.
I haven't heard many bad things about Youtube Premium on its own, besides all the jokes people were making back when it was called Youtube Red (hahah redtube...).
The way they seemingly randomly have a family plan in some countries but not in other is very annoying and the bundling of Youtube Music is problematic from a fair competition standpoint, but that's about it.
It's not that expensive for what you get, it removes ads which are the worst thing about Youtube and it ends us giving more money to the creators you watch compared to if you just watched the ads. What's not to like?
Posts like this come up regularly. The responses seem to have shifted over the last couple of years, with most now pointing out how dumb complaining about ads while refusing to pay is, but there are still plenty of people agreeing, and a strangely angry "how dare you not provide this service free!" vibe to them.
I’d pay for youtube in a heartbeat IF they weren’t double dipping and stealing my data (which is now much more valuable to them because they can associate my data with PII).
The only flogging I've seen has been of Google for daring to offer a way of paying to use Youtube without ads, but clearly the whining on social media hasn't prevented it being economically viable as they're still offering it ten years later.