A lot of people say they'd pay if they were given the option to remove ads, yet surprisingly few people opt to do it for YouTube ( which you can even share with friends and family up to 5 accounts, so it can be a decent deal). Why?
Ads serve as a reminder to watch less youtube.
Indeed you fuel the whole machine and enable their monopoly though. Content creators don't have much choice anyhow.
That's why personally i pay for Premium ( split between multiple people), have Nebula and force myself to use it for creators on it, and support some on Patreon directly. YouTube is a monopoly and are deeply entrenched - i highly doubt any competitor could dislodge them, but i try to help them nonetheless.
This is actually what made me cancel my Youtube Premium. I hate ads and make every effort to eliminate them from my entertainment, but I found myself mindlessly watching hours of youtube without them. Back on the free tier I find I can't watch more than one or two short videos before I get so frustrated and move on to something more productive. Very useful.
Because it's not entirely clear on their premium page.