I'm not even talking about making money, I'm talking about the little guy being able to garner exposure for their own work that would otherwise have no other way of getting exposure.
Granted, in some cases, like James Rolfe, or Doug Walker, they did better when they went in their own directions, a la Cinemassacre and ThatGuyWithTheGlasses (and later Channel Awesome), but this was the original purpose YouTube meant to serve (hence the name YouTube) . . . and yes, I am aware that even from the get-go, a lot of people abused the privilege of YouTube by uploading rare copyrighted material such as old movies and TV shows (and this is why the original creators sold YouTube to Google, so a bigger company could actively monitor copyrighted material being uploaded).
Nevertheless, with the increase of narcissistic vloggers, corporate-produced movies and shows, and now even celebrities taking to it, the little guy is virtually non-existent on YouTube. It'd be like if film festivals across the globe decided to start hosting Hollywood blockbusters with A-list casts, and shoo out the indie filmmakers with their Kickstarter projects.