I think we're just heading for (hopefully) a return to fragmentation of content. YouTube's dominance was largely from them pouring Google Ad money into the platform such that content creators made decent money while users didn't have to suffer as many ads as other platforms.
But over the years creators have become less dependent on Google ad money, instead relying more on sponsorships, paid subscriptions ala Patreon and superchat style systems for live streams. Leaving the audience as the only leverage YouTube has.
Now on top of that Google is creating incentives for people to look for alternatives. If it's already reasonable for people to self host alternate frontends like Invidious, it's only a matter of time till a gradual shift and fragmentation starts to occur.
I think Google would've had a much easier time of forcing people to not use adblock if they hadn't spent the past decade burning good will with the way they treat content creators.
This is my hope as well. If the majority of a content-creator's revenue comes from in-video sponsor segments, what difference does it make where the video is uploaded. Most podcasts follow this model, with the exception of ones that have a lucrative exclusive arrangement with a particular service, like Joe Rogan's on Spotify.
This already happened with many of the right-wing creators that were banned from YT some time back. Many of these creators upload to multiple 'alt-tech' sites (e.g. Rumble), and rely on sponsors or direct support, which isn't locked to YT.
But over the years creators have become less dependent on Google ad money, instead relying more on sponsorships, paid subscriptions ala Patreon and superchat style systems for live streams. Leaving the audience as the only leverage YouTube has.
Now on top of that Google is creating incentives for people to look for alternatives. If it's already reasonable for people to self host alternate frontends like Invidious, it's only a matter of time till a gradual shift and fragmentation starts to occur.
I think Google would've had a much easier time of forcing people to not use adblock if they hadn't spent the past decade burning good will with the way they treat content creators.