Ultimately, there's no real way to get around the fact that operating huge platforms like YouTube that serve hundreds of millions of people every day comes with very significant costs, and someone has to pay them. Either users pay them directly, advertisers pay them in exchange for ad space, or investors pay them in exchange for the ability to control the platform for whatever purpose they want.

Given that, I'm personally pretty happy to settle on direct subscription fees. For the sheer amount of content you get, I don't think it's really that unreasonable, though I am of course speaking as someone in a position where I can afford them.