The channels you‘re watching get a noticeable chunk out of your YT Premium subscription though. I‘ve heard multiple YT creators say, that they get a lot more money from a premium view than an ad supported one (and nothing when you use adblock). And I definitely watch too many different creators to support each and every one individually on patreon/nebula/floatplane/whatever.
It’s never too late to learn. Just don’t use the ich_iel community as study material or you’ll end up speaking a very strange kind of German.