This is like being on Play Store vs distributing the app yourself. You're paying a cut for the eyeballs and distribution Youtube provides.

The alternative would be for you to pay Google their share of money they would've made if they had ads enabled on your channel, which would be proportional to how many views your video gets. It makes sense since these channels have their own in-video ads which they make money from, and Youtube isn't getting a cut of that, it's similar to how app stores don't allow apps to have their own monetization which bypasses theirs.

That being said, having the creator payback Youtube depending on the number of views creates very weird incentives...

If they were harsher, they would've disallowed in-video ads completely and force channels to use Youtube ads.

Vimeo is great but keep in mind that it's blocked in some countries, which could be problematic if you want your video accessible in those countries.