You can make the same argument that companies should pay their workers more because in theory they'd be nothing without them when the truth is there's other workers out there to take their place if the current ones don't like it, and that goes 10x for creators, most of who get into it out of passion first making them easily exploitable and replaceable due to this supply/demand power imbalance.

Life is unfair and business is never about doing what's the fair or morally right thing to do, but doing what's the best for your shareholders.

Youtube only cares about creators if they're whales like Mr Beast, LTT, MKBHD, etc otherwise they don't give a damn about you, and creators still flock to YouTube because there's nowhere else for them to go to.

Well both. Look at the massive salaries at Google.