PHOTOGRAPHER ABUSE ALERT!!! So what's with the new YouTube ads? There use to be 30 second ads that could be skipped after 15 seconds or so. Now there are ads that can run for minutes. I'm not about to pay them $12.00 a month to remove ads, especially when I have multiple clips with over 400k views and I don't make a cent because I don't qualify for their profit making system. F-them, I'll remove all my videos as I don't want them profiting from my work and get nothing in return.
There are ad blockers that battle to stay ahead of these companies and their BS. You could check into that. Also, I am not sure how you are watching but I have seen few ads I cannot skip after 5 seconds. On your own clips you should have at least limited control on removing ads down to a minimum of 1-2 ads per so many minutes using YT studio. They keep adding more ad length and more clicks to skip them. The whole strategy is to see how much people will take, habituate them, and then push a little harder.
This should not be much of a surprise though, as YouTube / Google has become one of the most immoral and greedy companies on the planet, with nothing but revenue and power in their mind with each decision. Quality and treatment of users will continue to degrade until it affects their bottom line significantly. Sadly people seem to put up with endless BS and abuse from a lot of these large companies and keep paying for or being the product rather than enough people walking away. Many who work for such companies are clueless tech snobs who think they are innovators because they are overpaid and indoctrinated. Once this behavior is a permanent part of culture, which it is, it will take a lot to change it.
In the unlikely event YT starts to lose money, there will still be a long lag time for them to course correct and in my view they are so rotten now that it cannot be saved. The worst part is, they are still the best platform for many creatives to make any money and ads are part of that. In my mind, the market is very ready for a less greedy alternative for creatives to share and view content, but the monopoly prohibits it. FB, Google, Apple, Amazon, etc buy up and crush competitors before they can gain any momentum and the FTC does absolutely nothing about it since social media and tech giants will all do favors for politicians on other matters.
All I can say is, you either have to deal with it, walk away, or try to diversify on the smaller platforms.