Yeah it is ridiculous and it is so BS that they don't automatically monetize me after going way past 1000 subs and 4000 watch time. I have told myself I'm not going to do much with the channel until I get monetized but like you said I might even slip out of being qualified some how. It is total BS and they are really dropping the ball.
I see so many channels that are monetized that are complete copyright infringements. like the whole channel is just stuff they pulled off TV.
Yeah it amazes me how some people literally will post tv episodes and stuff and are running ads every 3 minutes and they have no issues and then someone uses a 10 second clip in a video they are making which should be allowed by creative commons and they get a copyrigth strike.
Yeah it makes no sense. I have seen channels that have videos that they have probably made $50,000 to $100,000 off ad revenue from songs and other people's content
I wonder what the grey areas are. When I workout I listen to a lot of personal development videos which is like Jim Rohn and Les Brown and Tony Robbins speeches with movie clips playingin the background. Not sure if that is blatantly against policy or if its okay since they've essentially tied that all together does that make it a new work of art?
Another thing I see that I think is blatantly just trying not to get caught is you can watch some TV episodes on Youtube but they will make a small screen within a background, I'm guessing whatever system Youtube uses to catch duplicate content can't pick up a frame within a larger design.