The problem is higher than zero intrest rates the free money dried up where before all the platforms were chasing infinte growth and free money meant they could run deficts as long as they grew they now need to make a profit now that debt costs money plus investor cash got sucked away to Bonds, CDs, and money market accounts giving a safe 5-7%.
This is why every service went to shit at the same time in the past year.
In a hypothetical world without adblockers, wouldn't YouTube need to show a lower amount of ads per person to make the same amount of revenue?
No, look at cable. Companies will turn the dial up on ads as much as they can, consumers have shown that they'll tolerate the current level of ads on YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, etc.
It's no different than price points, not showing the amount of ads the market will bear is leaving money on the table.
That trickle down fever dream has been on repeat for ages now but still hasn’t come to fruition.
Has YouTube ever turned a profit?
Profit numbers for YT have never been broken out in financial reports.