What? Who cares? They can have multiple revenue streams and they often do with Patreon and sponsored messages inside videos. That nonsense that they rely only on youtube ad money has to stop.
EDIT; oh you work for Google! That explains everything. Nice of you to mention that explicitly, by the way.
Well in my belief, ads are unethical. These two views don't reconcile. And since I'm in control of my computer, I get to decide if the ads play or not.
Because if "ads are unethical" under your definition of "unethical", then I think it's totally fine for people to do "unethical" things.
I'm saying that I think taking things without paying is unethical, while what Google does is not unethical (use user data to provide a service and sell ads).
Google should not do that. It's bad that Google does that. It's also bad when others do it.
However, Google is spending a lot of money trying to do that less. The difference in motivation and intention is important.