When I think about watching TV when I was younger, the details of the shows themselves have faded, but the small but constant miseries of ad breaks are relatively vivid. Sure, the show was good enough to leave an overall positive impression, or else I wouldn't be watching it - although I am sure this is part of the reason I watched relatively little TV - but pleasure and annoyance don't just cancel out; they remain in the mind as parallel memories, each with its own effect. Today, I only watch TV on paid video services that lack ads, and it continues to surprise me just how enjoyable a 'clean high' without interruptions is. Instead of my interest level rollercoastering up as the show plays, sharply down as the ads start playing - ending just before it's gotten low enough for me to abandon ship - it just goes up at the beginning and stays there until the end of the episode.
YouTube videos are different from TV shows, of course - they're typically much shorter, and each viewed as only one element out of many in a session of Internet sensory overload, where no one piece of content lasts long enough to engender the level of concentration characteristic of most other types of activities. When there's constant context switching, an additional switch for an ad isn't nearly as bad. But that doesn't mean I'm okay with it, especially when there's an different possible compensation structure that in theory better rewards both me and the creator.
I'm really curious if we just browse completely different subsets of videos or something. What videos are you watching that have so many unskippable ads?