I know that it creates opportunities for people. The question is, could that guy have done it without the monetization part? Certainly, would've just taken a lot longer...
Re:YouTube's new anti-adblock measures
by PaulDavisThe1st on Saturday June 21, 2025 @04:20PM
(#44340467)
He would have given up the project. It was a full time thing for him, not a side project.
For me the only youtubers still worth watching also have patreons. I prefer paying them there. Dave from EEVBlog is one of them.
But people like linus tech tips, marcus brownlee etc, they have really gone over the edge of commercialisation. I don't bother watching them anymore.
For example, there's a guy who rebuilt a early-1900's sailing boat from scratch, funded almost entirely by revenue from his channel. The videos are crazy high quality hand-construction porn and would never exist without the monetization aspect. Oh, and I had no prior and no current interest in boat building.
Most of the channels I follow (via RSS, rather than YT itself) are like this, and YT generally does an excellent job at putting new channels in front of me from time to time that marry my interests (even one's I didn't know I had) with phenomenally great story telling via video.