It's true that monetization has changed things and I can understand that for some folks it's bad but for some I think it's been really good.
In the old days the content was only driven by passion, because it wasn't really possible to make a living or fund a production team.
These days, you get guys like Colin Furze who are able to do what they're passionate about full-time, with nice equipment and staff to support them.
Tom Scott is another good example. He has a production team behind him but his content is still "here's a genuinely interesting thing I wanted to show you", maybe with a short, very obviously marked sponsored segment.
Tom Scott is perhaps a better example of how hollow monetised content can be.
His formula is taking topics that have been covered by other creators, dumbing the content down a bit, adding a sponsor block and a clickbait title. There's no effort expended in contributing new topics, or adding new colour to existing topics because researching that requires too much time and expertise to repeat day after day.
In the old days the content was only driven by passion, because it wasn't really possible to make a living or fund a production team.
These days, you get guys like Colin Furze who are able to do what they're passionate about full-time, with nice equipment and staff to support them.
Tom Scott is another good example. He has a production team behind him but his content is still "here's a genuinely interesting thing I wanted to show you", maybe with a short, very obviously marked sponsored segment.