You can do that through patronage, if you have the means. Advertising never leads to that. Every sector that depends on large numbers of people contributing a small fraction (like cinema or music) ends up turning into a race to the bottom, as appealing to the lowest common denominator is the most efficient way to succeed. The advertising internet model the epitome of that.
That is only true for the largest of brands. There are hundreds of thousands of niche youtube channels that makes their creators enough money to live on so that can now work full time creating niche content for their audiences, that wouldn't be possible without youtube ads.
So at least from we see on youtube the ads leads to more niche content, not less. There aren't enough payers to sustain that many niche channels.
Maybe. From what I've seen niche channels tend to have a Patreon or similar, so neither monetization model exists in a vacuum. It's true those niche channels exist thanks to YouTube, but if they were forced to rely uniquely on ads I don't think they would be able to survive without succumbing to trend-chasing, drama and formulaic routine videos, which is what big channels seem to do for the most part.
You can do that through patronage, if you have the means. Advertising never leads to that. Every sector that depends on large numbers of people contributing a small fraction (like cinema or music) ends up turning into a race to the bottom, as appealing to the lowest common denominator is the most efficient way to succeed. The advertising internet model the epitome of that.