YouTube is an unpaid internship
Let's begin there and let that thought breathe for a minute.
As a viewer, I can't find any small channels to support. Almost any search unveils scrolls of videos with million plus views. No offense to them, but I want to support the small creators who are struggling for those first 10 (or 50) views.
As a content creator, it seems like everything is rigged (see above), unless you pump in full-time, unpaid hours to somehow push past the algorithm (which I'm fairly sure is running on autopilot at this point).
What options are there for someone seeking small content and making small content. Not many, so I choose to create my own path. My hobby, my way, my goals, and be happy for whoever may stumble upon my tiny piece of the platform , and step way back from being a dedicated viewer, until there's a better way to self-curate the content there.