I’m a YouTube premium subscriber. It is absolutely a YouTube problem because content creators are blatantly bypassing the entire “ad-free” experience with impunity. And nobody can convince me with any clever wordsmithing that “sponsored content” is not an advertisement. It would be the same as saying those happy-ending massage parlors are not prostitution or that OF is not porn. And by the way, YouTube’s own TOS and other related literature make no distinction between these two types of ads; in fact the language is pretty broad because it says “ad-free experience” and makes no distinction between non-skippable ads and so-called sponsored content.

Content creators reap the benefits by essentially double-dipping while YouTube looks the other way, because, I would assume, it has no legal or financial impact on them. I put up with some of it because I really enjoy certain channels, but in other cases I have simply unsubscribed and have stopped engaging.

I have nothing against ads or making money in principle, but I detest being deceived and gaslighted, especially when I am paying for something.