Tbh I haven’t watched Netflix in a couple months - there are too many interesting things to watch that are not there! - but I do like knowing that some (probably tiny proportion but still more than zero?) of my funds goes to the original content creators, plus CC is built right in and it’s actually a solid streaming delivery, when you do find something worthwhile - as opposed to e.g. 123 streaming that can be extremely hit-or-miss (plus shows yanked entirely without notice). The point about the early days of YouTube is well taken, though as you implied that has not held up over time.
To be clear I am not advocating for anyone else to do so, just saying that I do (sometimes), although I am open to cmv too. It bothers me that anytime something actually gets popular Netflix drops it, though it’s nice that I don’t have to maintain a huge library of files and spend time on curation, so there is definitely both benefits as well as detractions.
That was my first thought as well. They have to take the same trek, do additional work in it, yet do not have the financial resources to buy the same type of gear… nor can they complain b/c “that’s the job”. :-|