How do content creators make money on these alternatives? It's a noble idea to get away from big corp, but someone has to foot that bill, so it's either ads or subs. Nobody had a platform that rivals YT except for probably PH, and that's not a real option.
It seems to me that most content creators make their money off things like patreon or selling merch, neither of which particularly ties them to Youtube.
I think a lot of them rely on Patreon, probably building their audiences on larger platforms and then veering off and taking their diehard fans with them, but I don't know of anyone that has been very successful doing that who isn't in the ragebait politics sector, and they all still use youtube if they can.
By all means, you have content from a creator you like you want to consume that's your deal. At the same time I believe youtube itself had done lots of disservice to the creators themselves but you're free to explore that rabbit hole.
End of the day you accept its ads or subs for the content you want. Me personally would rather chew nails then consume what youtube is pushing but you do you.
YT isn't pushing the content that I'm subscribed to. It's hosting it and serving it when I want to watch it. In turn those creators make money so that they can continue creating content that I enjoy. There is no better platform for finding content on how to compete some tasks, like fixing something specific on a car, how to knit a scarf, or unbiased snowboard reviews. Without YT, that information does not exist to the general public for free or is not easily accessible. Can it be better? Absolutely. But it is absolutely a net gain for content creators regardless of the disservices you may be referencing, and as I mentioned, provided access to information not available anywhere else.
I get it, you want to ride youtubes dick because they monetized their platform. A task that can never happen on any other platform. Thats sarcasm btw.
As much as you want to believe it's me that is being short sighted if you actually took a minute to evaluate the state of things you would concede things aren't all that great from any perspective. It's OK though. Your happy I'm happy. You do you.