Imagine if a newspaper could block you from reading an article because you didn’t spend enough time looking at the ads.

That’s a bad comparison. Newspapers cost money, so you either buy one or you don’t read the articles. Even in the case of free ones, they’re littered with ads. You don’t need to watch them, but they’re still there.

I hate what youtube is doing just as much as the next guy, but I’m yet to hear a convincing argument as to why it should be free. Many of the people complaining about this are gladly paying for Spotify and Netflix. Why not demand those for free too?