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.