It's true! Making a living from youtube is very difficult but if there's a good size subscriber base, there are different ways to make a little extra money outside of youtube... and there's no terrible pay window like there is here. I've had mixed success on youtube, a few great results, some terrible ones, and mediocre results...
I will find a way to put only 4 - 5 hours into my videos, so if they fail, it's not so bad for me :)