I’m not super opposed for paying for a product or service that I use, but the cost they are asking is just too expensive for me. Not that I can’t afford it, but for the 16/month or 23/month for family doesn’t meet my personal value/service.
Even if it were affordable, eventually it will go up. The subscribe-to-everything trend in business right now is pretty clear. Pretty soon we'll see subscription-based clothing.
Not that it's a massive difference, but it's $11.99 if you sign up on the web. The $16 is if you sign up on an iPhone, since that has to go through Apple's subscription service where they take a cut.
When YT Premium first started as YT Red they were trying to make original shows like Netflix and Amazon. AFAIK they're not really doing that anymore, so the break even cost of an ad-free experience should be significantly lower.
For mobile,and I believe pc, newpipe or libretube on fdroid,or their respective websites. Front ends for YouTube,ad free(libretube strips in video commercials too),and totally free. For fdroid tho,enable repositories and add https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/ . its the best way to watch YouTube,imo