Fair enough, though another possibility I see is that the automated training process for LLMs used OCR for those papers (Or an already existing text version in the internet was using bad OCR) and those papers with the mashed word were written partially or fully by an LLM.
Either way, the blanket term “AI” sucks and it’s honestly getting kind of annoying. Same with how much LLMs are used.
I pay for premium because currently it’s the easier option for getting no Ads on all my devices. Yes I could install a third party client on my TV, Phone & use uBlock on Desktop, but two of those require active upkeep.
For sponsorships, YouTube Premium has the “Skip Ahead” feature which basically leeches off sponsorblock users where commonly skipped sections can be also skipped by you.
It’s just currently easier to pay than to pirate. I will say however, if it gets too shitty, I will resort back to pirating.