It does matter because it inspires newer platforms that aren't as shitty like Lemmy, PixelFed, Mbin, and PeerTube.

People will accept anything to not be inconvenienced in a purely consumer society.

That doesn't matter to me. When a company does shit like this, I won't use it and will actively avoid it. People can do what they want and if they want to be abused constantly that's on them. I don't really care. I make my choice and I stick with it. Change will never happen with companies, they don't care unless they actually get charged more then the money they make from their abuse and we all know that will never happen .

Well I don't know about the Reddit stuff not mattering—I occasionally still check on it for a couple of niche communities and the Reddit I used to enjoy has basically died, it's like the place is filled with angry idiots now. Those people were always there before but usually buried under a load of downvotes where you could mostly ignore them; they now seem to be a majority of those left contributing over there.

They killed the golden goose in scaring off enough of the people contributing most interesting posts and comments (who were doing it entirely for free!) that the lunatics have taken over and shat on everything

Each of these exoduses moves the bar a little bit. We only lose if we give up. Eventually the bad decisions will catch up to them, as long as we keep pushing.

I don't know about you, but what I learned is we'll build our own Youtube with blackjack and hookers.

I wouldn't particularly like it, that's for sure. But I would ultimately just bite the bullet and do it. At some point, you're just pushed too far and it's just not worth dealing with.

I genuinely spend too much time on that site, but I haven’t seen an ad in years. If that changes, then I guess I’ll have to change, too.

I don't think it can be completely avoided, but it can definitely be trimmed down a hell of a lot. As an example, if you watch YouTube for an hour a day and they make a change like this and you start watching it for 10 minutes a week, that's a serious reduction.

Unfortunately it is such a repository of information that it's nearly unavoidable anymore. It's a reference tool. Need to fix your car? YouTube knows how. Need to write a piece of code with a tool you're unfamiliar with? A random Indian man has posted a YouTube video explaining how. Need to find a hidden item in a video game? YouTube. There are many and varied reasons I'd pull up a YouTube video outside of the intended purpose of "watching YouTube" for entertainment. Many of these things can, technically, be conveyed through different media but often poorly and with a much lower rate of understanding. The sheer volume of knowledge and culture lost if Google ever takes down YouTube's servers will be akin to the burning of the Library of Alexandria and that is not a joke. I don't want to "watch YouTube" anymore for the most part but it is inescapable to me for several purposes as a reference material.