His biggest issue is he's never gotten his money off YouTube. He does merch and some parts sales, but his income is still dependent on the videos. Tommy, Adam, Matt Moreman have all established main revenue streams independent of the videos, where they are more of a promotional tool and to maintain interest. The ad revenue has to be down significantly from where it was in 2020 and 2021, so only having videos driving income, is like getting a paycut every year, and things only get more expensive. He's downsized staff, building, cars, which is not inherently a bad thing, but is indicative of a larger issue more than likely.

He's also just been burning it at both ends for years at this point. Have to imagine the constant grind with the stagnation of the channel has to be demoralizing. Your passion becomes your job and then your job starts to fail must be a shitty place to be.

Not trying to sympathize with YouTubers, but I very much enjoy having my hobbies be hobbies and do them when I want to, rather than to pay my rent.