> without youtube, users would be seeking out this content, like they did with blogs before facebook.
Would they really though? His top viewed videos are "Why the Soviet Computer Failed" and "What Eating the Rich Did for Japan". If those were headlines for a personally-hosted video blog, the biggest group I can see eating that up is the Twitter mob, which, all things considered, doesn't generate much value and is unlikely to translate into a dedicated follower base.
In addition, those are kind of two different interest groups: I'd imagine less than 50% of people interested in the Soviet Computer topic are interested in viewing/reading a pro-"eat the rich" content piece. With YouTube, their recommendations allow the user to only be fed the content that correlates with what they want to see (and this is more apparent in other parts of YouTube, eg. Channel Awesome[0] where anything that's not in their Nostalgia Critic or Untitled Review Show series tends to get comparatively few views).
You re leaving out the part that without youtube, users would be seeking out this content, like they did with blogs before facebook.
I think he should do that. Host his own content and use youtube for trailers only, a-la onlyfans