Yeah sure if you just wanted entertainment maybe, but educational content for example requires so much research and double checking that it wouldn’t be possible without ad money.

Research did not begin when YouTube started paying people to upload to their platform. It was already being done. It might be more accessible to people who only do YouTube and do not get grant money for their research, but saying research wouldn’t be possible without ad money is nonsense.

Also, adding a financial incentive to upload as many videos as possible to get as many clicks and views as possible doesn’t sound like the way you encourage truthful, factual, and well-researched educational content to get shared. If anything, it would encourage a lot of low effort clickbait, misleading titles and thumbnails, opinion pieces, “edutainment” and poorly sourced material mass produced for a wide audience. Not saying that’s what happened, I’m sure there are plenty of channels that exist now thanks in part to ad revenue helping them get started and/or continue posting at regular upload intervals, but the Cobra Effect is real and people will always be finding ways to take the path of least resistance to getting their payout.