If you think people are getting paid by youtube then your are wrong. The amount per user is insignificant.
You can spend a $ directly to any creator you like and watch his channel ad free for the rest of your life and they have more money from you than they would get by ads from youtube
While I basically agree with what you're saying, I'd also like to point out that the money they get from you watching ads is miniscule. I don't remember which YouTuber it was, maybe Matthias Wandell, who said that if you donate just one dollar, that's more than they're ever going to profit from you watching ads.
Its sad this is being downvoted. Ethically you should pay to use the service either through ads and personal data or subscription and personal data.
I don't do either because I don't like Google and don't care about being Ethical to them. I understand why they would try and stop me and I've come to terms with the fact that I will have to give up youtube in the next decade.
If you're talking ethics, I think the most important thing is that the user controls what their software does. YouTube videos are hosted on the web, and fundamentally people can choose how to display web sites on their own computer. Of course, if YouTube doesn't like this it's their prerogative to not host their content like that.