"Your account may be terminated at any time"
No business owner wants to print that in large letters above every upload form: "Thanks for uploading, your content may be deleted at any time, keep a copy."
What we need though is some accountability especially from large companies and for real users.
How long can we go before we start treating online stuff like real stuff? Why is my car protected from theft but my data isn't?
And size should have nothing to do with it. I believe treating most SaaS providers the same.
Brainstorming an interface, I can imaging "archive your original source materials" as an upsell alongside the YouTube upload, with an option to archive the actual video file as well. This would actually be enabled if you were to subscribe to the archival service, which would be paid in advance. Perhaps we can argue that such files should be considered private materials rather than redistributed works, so not subject to copyright takedowns.
And that's the problem here: With no humans in the process, YouTube treats ordinary users and predators exactly the same way, because ultimately, algorithms are stupid and don't make good moderators.
Does it have to be that way? There are various reasons for banning an account.
If the content is actually CSAM, then I imagine a provider's hands are tied under US law at least. But algorithmically flagged CSAM has a confidence percentage associated with it. A provider is not legally obligated to deny you archival access to video of a kid's pool party given a false positive flag by a scanning algo.
Then there are lots of other reasons that an account may end up banned where archival access doesn't necessarily have to be problematic. For example, there's no reason to take away access to completely original COVID denialist videos, even if the platform decides that it's not going to allow them to be shared.