I used to be in the same boat as OP, but since trying to degoogle I (obvioisly) stopped buying Premium and instead buy into Patreon of select creators. If there was some sort of degoogled Youtube Premium that would go towards support of people I watch, I’d much rather opt for that (obviously a very theoretical proposition) - I can support only so many via Patreon, even if all would have a 1$ tier.
Of course, when buying Premium part of my motivation was my comfort. It was comfortable support via Premium or uncomfortable support via ads. Patreon is fine but you can’t feasibly pay for one for every creator who’s video you watched
I feel like they mainly had to listen to the feedback they were getting. More feedback won’t save you if you ignore it