I'm not disagreeing with you, but just because you don't like something doesn't mean there's not a huge audience for people like PewDiePie, especially among the younger demographic - which still spends money, and which is a constantly-replenishing spring.
EDIT: And PewDiePie won't disappear. He provides the perfect wish fulfillment for kids that would love to stay in their bedrooms and be paid to play videogames all day long.
Maybe if YT wasn't so fixated on ad revenue it wouldn't be missing out on a huge potential market.
- people who will never earn more than this off youtube, but aren't motivated by earning money.
- people who are currently earning less than this, and are motivated by money but are on a trajectory to quickly exceed 1000 subscribers. they'll be minimally affected.
- people who are currently earning less than $100/yr, but are motivated by money and are unlikely to exceed 1000 subscribers anytime soon. If they're actively working to grow their channel but can't break 1000 subscribers, losing them is probably for the best.
I don't see how this is going to really harm youtube's content pool.
- There are people who just need to do some work and get out of their house and aren't motivated by earning money.
- There are those who make it their career and want to work up the chain. They will be minimally affected.
- There are those who are part time and but can't make it into full time any time soon. Let's hypothesize that they're not actively trying to be the best workers so let's just get rid of them. No harm done.
That sounds like a pretty scary world.
I remember when Google was known for actually thinking things through.