Best deal is YT premium family, I have 5 or 6 people on it with no commercials on YT and YT music which is great for our use cases as well. Yes it's like $25 a month, but everyone that uses it loves it!
I consume a lot of YT, for "How it's made" and project shows there really isn't anything remotely comparable. No ads and FF through sponsored content is awesome.
Literally entire youtube, free without ads, no account to do tracking, easy download button and best of all straightforward home page that can list uploads from subscriptions.
Honestly if this suits your family keep it. But youtube exploiting its creators for admoney cannot be the best deal.
I believe someone else mentioned 55% of premium revenue goes to creators. That is a fairly significant share, plus the cost of hosting content and maintaining the appliances etc etc. It seems reasonable to me for less than $5 per person per month.
I'm on it and do have a sub, but it's for someone unrelated to YT content. If I find a channel I can't live without I'll consider it but I have super ADD taste on subject matter.
Its more then i thought but it gets split between creators you watch and its pretty vague on how that is devided, per view, based on time watched? With so many crap suggested and auto play id love to see some stats, many creators i enjoy switched to unmonitized and patriot support long before premium was a thing.
I get that hosting content costs money but that doesn't stop systems like torrentio to provide entirely free streams of literally any show in multiple variations of 4k resolution.
It doesn't have to be this way and the creators deserve much more.
But i too have a family, i understand the value in plug an play convenience, i can definitely see how its worth it you. If it works, and is affordable don't change it.
But for everyone else who may be tempted, there are great alternatives to watch and support alternatives without paying the techdragons toll.