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I do this and I am still considering going third party if I can’t turn off shorts soon

The problem with this is that views from third-party clients don't seem to be counted correctly. Lots of creators now have ads in their videos, in addition to YT ads, so presumably, the lower view counts also hurt their own ad sales.

I don't really want to use the official YT client, or give Google any money, so I just buy some merch from my favorite creators once in a while, or support them on Patreon.

This is the way. If a user does not have YT Premium, watching 500 hours earns the creator from $0.5 to $5. Patreon/merch is way more effective in supporting your favorite authors.

No this is just an excuse. Not all content creators are full time or have audiences. Sometimes people just make valuable content, and deserve to be paid under the agreement that they give you free content, you watch an ad. If you don't like the service, do not use the service.

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