When I started I studied some other channels in the photography niche. And I saw that you need around 100k subscribers to make a living. I also saw that most of the successful channels in this niche needed around 5-7 years to get there. So yeah this was very much expected.
But I’m not doing this for the money. I do it because it is the most fun project I have ever done. I would do it for free. If I go too long without posting a video I actually start feeling depressed. So for me it is therapy. But it is nice to earn a living from doing something you must do to be happy :) And also it feels nice when people ask what I work with, to mention something that actually earns me a living.
YouTube is pretty much the only viable platform if you make long form content and want to earn money doing so.