The problem with that argument is that that ship has long sailed. Today it is next to impossible to securely use the internet without having an adblocker insta

The problem with that argument is that that ship has long sailed. Today it is next to impossible to securely use the internet without having an adblocker installed and enabled (or using something like Freetube, which is essentially a specialized ad blocking browser), otherwise you are exposing yourself to drive-by malware installs. Ads were and are a major vector here, including Google ones, given their market size. Heck, even FBI recommends it for exactly these reasons! So if someone is arguing that I have to make my computer less secure only to make sure they can monetize my eyeballs, that's a no, full stop. I would happily pay and support the artists or creators (and I do so) - but not by removing adblock and opening myself to an indiscriminate onslaught of insecure and poorly made ads. And lets not delude ourselves with these moral arguments here - this isn't and never was about funding the creators of that content. Most Youtube video creators don't see a dime for their work from Google - and yet Youtube wouldn't exist without them and Google directly profits from that work. The choice of business model - provide free video supported by advertising - was also Google's. Nobody forced them into it and they are free to make YT subscription-only. However, if YT was a paid service from the start, they wouldn't be anywhere near where they are today. And don't get me started on the evolution of ads on YT - I have no issues with watching an ad or two per video. But these days you have unskippable pre-roll ads, you have (often multiple) mid-roll ads, you have ads at the end of the video and all that in addition to whatever sponsor promotion is directly in the video itself (and which actually pays the video creator). So out of a 10 minutes long video there is often ~6 minutes of just ads. No,thank you.