I am not saying you should have to give Google your money, but do you think the people who make content on Youtube deserve to get paid for it? Even if they make money on Patreon or Floatplane, Youtube is not a cheap service to run and you are still using it.

Pay for the stuff you use or don't use it. But you don't get to complain about companies treating you like the product.

A Youtube family plan is a fairly cheap way to access a lot of content. You also get access to Youtube Music which is... fine. That's less than $5 per user per month. If you are already there a few hours a week, it's a steal.

What's funny is that creators and Youtube get much more than 2x the amount of earnings from $5 than from all the ads you were being served. If more people paid, creators would probably resort to fewer of the much, much worse VPN or game ads that get hard-baked right into the vids.