Some people might find the answer to be obvious (yes) but I’ve rarely found it so. In fact, this is a question I often find in the linux community (regarding linux going mainstream, not lemmy) and people are pretty split upon it.
On one hand, you may get benefits like more activity, more content, more people to interact with, a greater chance you’ll find someone to talk to on some specific subject.
On the other, you could run into an eternal September like reddit, where Lemmy would lose its culture, and have far more spam and moderation issues.
I don’t know, what do you think?
For a YouTube alternative, there is LBRY, though I don’t know much about how well it really pays, particularly in comparison to YouTube. That said, creators can post paid content, and I think users can setup a monthly tip to the channel, or even tip a creator’s video if they want.
Don’t know if the devs have set up any kind of payment system based on views though.
I think LBRY is a very good answer to the current limitations of PeerTube, and there is a payment system based on views, activity, and production. Even viewers get paid for viewing. But the SEC pretty much killed it a few months back. It’s losing nearly all of its momentum and I’m not sure how they intend to recover. They’ve also had problems with payouts (I never got my 50 free LBC from the beta test, and when I brought it up to the admins, they deleted the offer).