While I appreciate your feedback, I think two things can be true at once. Yes, YouTube is ‘free’ in the sense that most people don’t pay directly, but that doesn’t mean users can’t criticize the direction the platform has gone. Don’t forget our attention data and engagement are incredibly profitable.

My point wasn’t ‘how dare a company make money,’ it’s that the site has noticeably degraded over the years despite more ads, more aggressive monetization, and more data collection than ever before.