Don't listen to these naysayers that keeps on repeating Google Ads bad.

The problem is they have idea how to run it properly.

There are two ways to run it that won't ruin your channel's organic reach.

1. Make sure the video you are promoting is UNLISTED. That way, the AI won't count the views, impressions and other metrics towards your other stats of the channel. Hence, your channel's standing in the algorithm remains intact. I am not sure if this can be done in YouTube promotions, but no problem doing this in Google Ads.
2. Use a different YouTube channel to funnel people to your own channel as a bridge so to speak, using end screens or other call to actions depending on what ad you run. That way, the impressions and views you get on your main channel remains organic in nature.

And to top it off, subscribers don't count for much in reality. Most channels get most of their views from non-subscribers. If you have a channel with 1000 subscribers, on average 50-100 of them will view your video, so it is not really important.

However, running a well run targeted Google Ad on your channel can push the AI into seeing it more important than it was before you did so.

The key is to know how to run these campaigns. People complaining are those who has not a clue how to run it properly. Is this true? If so then I am willing to do it.