Unlike a random blog, I can pay YouTube to remove all the ads. I watch GN videos, and they get paid, but I never see ads other than GN's sponsor message and merch which are trivial to skip.

Compare AnandTech which has always been a user-hostile visual insult. The whole article is covered in ads. You can barely find the words. The articles are needlessly split over 25 pages so you click and load over and over. They really pioneered a lot of bad patterns.