I agree with what you're saying YT really did change the game and created an ideology of independent content creation and made it possible, the trend is definitely bigger than Youtube itself. Video content on the net has been split between YT, FB, Insta and the like and if one platform could be a hollow consolidation of it I think it would be surprisingly large too

I also agree that the advertising model isn't the greatest but youtube have not really been about profits they've been about scale and they know that video content is every green. Youtube is technically the second largest search engine in the world and that's not going to change very easily.

Youtube will also be the graveyard for a lot of low quality or common denominator content that works well for views but not well on merit, same as FB vs Steemit.

I don't use dTube much but i really look forward to a time when it starts attracting more users who can set up their own little production houses/channels and push out content free from advertiser targetting and get rewarded for creativity, quality of content and execution.