I get that it started for free with less intrusive ads, but YouTube has had a huge impact on the way we all share and consume information. Understanding how much money it takes to run a service with the technology needed to provide high definition videos on a site that is up 99.9999999% of the time, I have no issue paying for a service that has changed my life in many positive ways. Now I do hate price gouging like everyone else, but it’s inescapable from gas & groceries to all streaming platforms.
I think this is unpopular enough. Though I will always advocate people donate directly, buy merch, or figure out some other way to support the creators. Typically buying a single t-shirt will completely offset your personal adblocking of a creator pretty much for life.