I don't know how popular this take is, but I pay for premium and feel like it's worth it. Granted, it's super cheap in my region and I get the student discount on top of that. I'm not a creator but last I checked, premium revenue is a little higher than ad revenue and isn't affected by demonetization.

There are multiple factors that convinced me to get premium and ads weren't one of them, since I've been using ublock and Vanced/ReVanced for years.

• Many creators I watch make excellent, high effort content but get demonetized for not being brand safe.
• I use youtube a lot. I'll be the first to try fediverse alternatives of anything, but unfortunately, youtube isn't something replaced so easily simply because the creators still need money to make the content I enjoy. That's reality.
• I can afford premium but not Patreon/merch/memberships/superchats frequently enough to matter if at all.

Content on the internet hasn't been free for a long time. It's been funded by shady and user-unfriendly means like ads, harvesting data and affiliate links. It's just that the money from these sources has started to dry up recently and people are panicking. I think the web monetization api has great potential if made easily and widely accessible, since I'm sure that a significant portion of people are perfectly willing to pay a little bit monthly for a better experience and to support the content they consume. I'm looking at using it in a project of mine as well.