They might even put the ads in different places for different users to throw off things like Sponsorblock.

I consider my time to be valuable, and really hate ads though so removing even a few minutes of ads are worth the $8 to me.

Also you can block the ads so you have the third option.

Until that point I’ll continue to pay. Content creators tell me they get more income from premium subscribers too so win-win.

No.

It's wild to me that people like you think you're in a position to make demands when you have zero leverage. How did you become so delusionally detached from the way the world works? You literally have no power over me, when you make demands of me, you're just pissing into the wind. Have fun getting wet, weirdo.

It is literally better in every way and helps support the content creators whose work you enjoy. As a bonus it includes YouTube music.

I guess taking those creators work without paying using adblock is one way to live, but that doesnt give you the moral high ground you think it does and your entitled attitude is kind of nasty. Do you really feel like YouTube and all of those creators owe you free shit? Just don't use it if you hate commercials that much and can't afford 8 lousy bucks.

No I don't work there. I'm just a fan who thinks the excuses people make to steal are gross.

I would have to jump through all kinds of hoops to do that, like creating an account, staying logged in, and on top of that I would still need to have my adblocker to fix their website trying to shove "trending" videos down my throat. The real recommendations based off viewing history work great with a disposable anonymous cookie.

Simply put, paying doesn't provide enough value over doing it the free way. This is YouTube's problem, not mine. I don't pirate games, simply because buying them from steam or gog is a much nicer user experience than pirating the games. But dealing with google and getting so little in return, still needing to use extensions to fix their crap website anyway? Nah, I don't care about their business model.

I’m having much more trouble imagining life without Google Maps that without YouTube.

The report system has been gimped massively,can't even type in reasons any more just have to select from some limited options and hope for the best. Took me over half a year of reporting a permanent street closure near me for them to actually change it and all the whole they were happy to direct people and cars down it . Other times they just outright reject reports without any reason.

Directions have got more sucky over the years.

More and more advertising has creeped into the maps as well, seeing the logos for stores and restaurants over other places and when zoomed out because they paid to be boosted.

I only use Google for street view and, on google earth, for historical aerial imagery these days, not for navigation. For that I use apps that use OSM like Organic Maps or now CoMaps.

I find it hard to extract the same practical value from YouTube. There have been cases where I would see how people repair stuff and to some degree it has been useful but it is hard to find that "useful" type of video you look for among all the noise. Product review videos are always kind of fishy, because reviewers are mostly sponsored. So I can't quite get to extract anything of great value from YouTube.

Btw, thank you for the Organic Maps tip. Looks really really cool!

That said, YouTube has been auto-dubbing videos using an algorithm that overdubs English spoken by people with an accent, which I consider discriminatory (if not outright racist), so I'm trying the various alternatives now. In a few months I think I'll have more of an opinion about them.