I think YouTube has possibly swung too far in the other direction, where there are now entire companies who deliver copyright strikes on behalf of their clients and YouTube takes the video (or the monetization) away from the poster immediately... and the poster has to appeal and fight with YouTube to get it reinstated. It's become a massive problem and a huge weapon against creators.
Totally agree that there is a huge difference between hosting and embedding, but I'm sure arguments can be made that if users are making money off the videos of others, then they could be sued for copyright breaches... but given the amount of money at play at this stage I'm confident its a non-event.
Maybe. Google is a strange bird. I wonder if it is copyright they are concerned about. They seem to go on a furry against whatever suits them at that moment and crush all they see.
They did it to crypto a number of years ago.
I think we can be highly confident of this. The legal fees would far outpace what the payouts are in total. I dont think it is worth the fight over a few bucks here and there.