Who gets to process the copyright strike and tell creators they need to remove the content in order to not have consequences? YouTube.
Who gets to close down the channel even before any lawsuit against a copyright allegation is conducted? YouTube.
Beato is fighting BMG because he sees YouTube as the hand that feeds him, but he could get rid of all the BMG annoyances if he was brave enough to own his distribution channel.
UMG however has not any relationship with the author so they actually can be sued. If they hate their subcontractor YouTube for it, that's their problem.
They're the legal entity on behalf of which blocking is done, after all.
A lot of it is just CYA and enforcement theater. YouTube could pretty much have one dedicated account manager for someone with the subscriber count of Beato who would work as a first-line of defense against frivolous/bogus copyright claims.
> I would expect smaller platforms to adopt similar policies as they grow
But then the content creators who take ownership of their social media presence will by definition be a lot closer to those making these types of decisions, and they will be able to say "I don't think I am infringing on anything, if you really disagree you will have to go to court".
Are there any Youtube alternatives which actually do this, though?
I don't think it actually makes a difference whether Youtube hires the lawyer, or whether Beato hires the lawyer. It comes out of Youtube ad revenues either way. It's better for Beato to be the one to choose who he wants to represent him.