I just wrote a rather long comment to that person and now I've realized they are being purposefully obtuse.
You playing the content on YouTube is entirely justified. Lots of people put the news on a television instead of a radio while doing things around the house, because occasionally something visual is referenced or something is said that seems interesting enough to look over at the screen.
Besides, it's not like the person that went through the effort of putting together a ten hour long essay is going to publish just the audio as a podcast or something.
That person's an egg head, you enjoy your essays.
Absolutely. The content mountain YouTube is sitting on is their most valuable asset. In my view, Nebula is doing a fine job of beginning any potential transition away from the black hole of YouTube.
I think eventually the way to cripple YouTube would be for creators to, after years I imagine, transition to Nebula or similar, and then remove the videos from YouTube. Leave one up directing people to the new hosting site, but ultimately I do feel the old videos need to be pulled from YouTube, not just new content.
One thing's for certain though, all the garbage YouTube tries to push alongside the videos are overbearing and only serve to drive engagement. Nothing they do is to benefit the viewers, let alone the creators.