Sorry that I didn't specify. By 'require accounts', I meant to interact. And so to make comments you are required to have an account attached. This wasn't the case in the past. Anonymity is gone. Why does this matter? Sometimes people reach out to each other anonymously about serious things that they are afraid to voice with a more obvious traceable identity.
Saying that everyone should use adblock plus doesn't address the point I made at all. What you provided was a band-aid to the issue I brought up. I use adblock plus, too. That's not the point.
As I said before, and for which most people with a memory can agree, Youtube is/was based on user generated content more than content from big business. When I was talking about Youtube's recent policies pushing independent artists off, I was *not* talking about copyright violations. That is a separate issue. Please read up. There's a lot that you're assuming isn't happening in your response. They truly are reducing access and producing a walled garden. You just haven't read enough lately to know about it.