That will only work for a select group of viewers. Waiting a day or even a week isn’t a huge deal for me as a consumer, and I’m familiar with it because Patreon people often put their videos up in patreon earlier than their YouTube ones.

You are right. However, when Google blocks the creator, most of their audience will know how to find them.

My understanding gained from watching various kickstarters and patreons is that creators don't need a million views, they need a few thousand engaged fans and they can be self sufficient at that point.

The question, always, is what's the alternative? Rumble?

Yeah, but YouTube has ads that can pay the content creator. PeerTube doesn't.

This is simply incorrect. I have seen many creators and businesses try this and simply not find movement, for example RoosterTeeth which owns many different channels and brands and has a very comprehensive video streaming site, yet their videos get 1/1000th the viewership on their own platform vs youtube. The platform is captive.

In all fairness, I think Mixer employing this exact strategy showed that it is extremely hard to migrate communities. Even with creators making millions of dollars a year.