Why is this surprising? Youtube has become the gatekeeper, not the facilitator of new and exciting video tech.
People want YouTube's captive audience of billions and the pre-existing monetization network. But they are upset that there are arbitrary rules for accessing that audience/money. I am pretty sure that 99.9% of Youtubers wouldn't exist if there were no possibility of ever making money from their videos.
Wherever YouTube stands right now, it's still better than the situation 20 years ago where a few network executives controlled what sort of video programming would be produced. It might not be perfect, but there are plenty of people who started from nothing that are making money from their creative work; something that wouldn't have even been possible just a few years ago. So maybe it's not all bad.