YouTube is increasingly only a few pain points from mass exodus from both creators and audience. Advertisers and copyright maximalists less so.

Bandwidth and distribution are no longer the limitations on independent hosting they once were. Independent discovery methods (e.g., DDG video search), are improving. Noncommercial orientation makes youtube-dl and similar mechanisms a net positive --- simplify the web-based delivery, increase viewer flexibility, provide greater tolerance for network or system variability.

My own interest in YouTube has very little to do with commercial mass media, and far less to do with ad-seeking chum-spewing bottom-feeders.