If YouTube were an independent company, they would have less leverage in the marketplace overall since they no longer are backed by Google's resources, no longe

If YouTube were an independent company, they would have less leverage in the marketplace overall since they no longer are backed by Google's resources, no longer a part of Google's walled garden. Google will no longer have reason to give YouTube preferential treatment in ranking, advertising, etc. There's a lot of foundational things that will be shaken up, things which will force YouTube to actually be competitive, and actually provide value to users. Competitors will actually have a chance to dethrone them, and then the competitive forces of the marketplace, much like evolution, will lead to the crappiest business practices (like this premium spam) dying off and the market power shifting over to the users/customers. That's of course assuming there's sufficient competition, and the power doesn't just shift over to Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft or some other anti-competitive giants.