YouTube is a relic of the fiat era, where datacenter resources have been subsidized in a loose monetary environment by investors and advertisers chasing nominal fiat gains.

All the while, the people they advertise to buy increasingly commoditized goods with no margins. The trash content YouTube pays to host is crushing under its own weight.

The real cost of resources (high) is starting to be realized at the same time as the value of viewers (nearly 0), and so the drain circling has begun. Subsidized UX is nearing it's end, save for new but temporary AI training subsidy.

Inevitably, value signaling with sats on sites like Lightning.Video is going to cannibalize billions of dollars in YouTube deflation