I think we've seen the core youtube product remain relatively unchanged for a long time. I mean, aside from YouTube Live, which I haven't really seen anyone do except for the month it came out, there has been any real innovation on the platform since Google acquired it.
What did change with YouTube was the way that they treated their creators... it went from being people uploading random videos to share with friends, to people running whole channels and businesses on there... this brought in advertising dollars, which then brought more creators to the platform.
But, of course, any time you have advertisers on the platform, you have to keep them happy, and so when brands started noticing that their ads were running next to videos and channels that they didn't want to be associated with, they told YouTube they needed to fix the problem, and that's why we've seen such a clamping down on monetisation.
And I honestly think it's a tough position for YouTube - they need to keep their advertisers happy, but they're quickly creating an environment where talent is not encouraged to bring their content to the platform. In addition to DTube/Steemit, Facebook is also making a play for their creators with Facebook TV, so it'll be interesting to see how that pans out.
In terms of where YouTube should go from here, it seems to me that there's an opportunity to create tools to help new creators, or demonetised creators, better connect with brands that might be interested in promoting their channels. Otherwise they're going to see a drop in new channels being created, which long-term will hurt the platform.
In terms of whether DTube/Steemit is the answer, I think DTube in particular has a long way to go before it's a completely viable alternative to YouTube, but in the meantime posting your videos to YouTube and then embedding them in a Steemit post is a great way to double-dip at monetising your videos (YT revenue + Steemit revenue), without paying DTube's 25% author rewards fee.
Anyway, just my 0.02sbd :)
Good point about YT + Steemit revenue (thats assuming one is eligible to get YT monetisation)
heh... YT could always split to two products? YT for casual users and YT for business channels