But YouTube still is free. This article isn't about YouTube not being free, they've just increased the price of their subscription (like Netflix and Spotify do routinely). You just expect to get it for free and without ads. I'm confused at who you think is paying to store and stream all those videos if it was entirely free?

Going down the rabbit hole of YouTube getting it's content for free is a slippery slope. I see what you're saying, but YouTube is hosting and streaming that content for those content creators. That isn't cheap. It's a double edged sword. Because you likely wouldn't know or have access to those content creators if they weren't able to upload those videos to YouTube and not have to pay to provide that service themselves. Is it perfect, no. But name another completely free streaming service.

And I'd argue it's not entirely comparable to Reddit and Twitter. Both in cost incurred to store and stream that data, and they pay those content creators who generate a lot of views. Again, another rabbit hole in terms of what payment is fair etc. But it's not a fair comparison to put YouTube in the Twitter and Reddit bucket. It probably sits somewhere in between Spotify and those social platforms.

Edit: I forgot to point out the biggest issue with your comparison to Reddit and Twitter. You seem to forget that those platforms also have ads.