It was, but monetization has been so aggressively everywhere that I think they finally are in the black at least since 2018.

Publicly owned by which government? Because I don't think YouTube's home of the US is really a good choice right now.

I would be free from relying on a single google server for anything.

some random mfs with 400TB of hoarded YouTube videos will emerge out of hiding

Wouldn’t step by step instructions be quicker and more effective?

For this type of work, typically no, it's quicker and more effective to have someone show you exactly how to do it.

I hate that this has become so commonplace. Yes for some - mostly physical - things it’s much better if you can see someone do it. But finding an obscure setting in an app shouldn’t be a video.

Stuck on a 20 step installation process? Here’s a 10 minute video showing all the steps you already know before the phase you’re stuck. Sure you can scrub through it, but it’s still faster to skim and scroll through a text with images.

The difficult part is not the software or even the hosting. It's more about the network effects and the ability to let users monetize uploads, which in turn creates vast potential for abuse and fraud, which in turn has to be addressed by burning stupendous resources. At a certain point people stop wanting exposure or "making a difference" for their own sake, and instead want to get paid in genuine coin of the realm.

PeerTube started as being P2P based, hence the name. :) However, due to technical challenges associated with it, they dropped support for P2P streaming in 2023 (see the link for details).