Sometimes the channels are derelict - someone created the account, maybe to leave a comment, then never really used it again. Maybe you could argue that people

Sometimes the channels are derelict - someone created the account, maybe to leave a comment, then never really used it again. Maybe you could argue that people should be responsible for shutting down unused accounts. I wouldn't agree but that's not unreasonable. But it is often the case that the owners of these accounts try to get access back from YouTube, to no avail. Several animators I subscribed to had their accounts hacked (maybe poor passwords) and filled with crypto scam nonsense and the process of getting them back was hopeless and took many months of concerted effort from them and their fans. At that point, though the scammers are of course primarily at fault, I'd also place blame on YouTube for allowing the scam-turned accounts to remain. Protection for user content that is sometimes illegal should cease when a host repeatedly fails to remove that (specific instance of) content in good faith.