Although not exactly what is needed right now, YouTube is apparently testing a new homepage, which lacks two key elements currently present on it. These missing parts are the overall viewer count and the publishing date for each video, allowing the user to focus only on the video title and creator name.https://www.notebookcheck.net/YouTube-allegedly-testing-a-homepage-without-view-count-and-upload-date-information.910606.0.html
So google can hide view count from publisher and just show reduced view count and pay much lower
Probably the publishers will still get access to their metrics, that would be insane to hide these from them...
Youtube is dying a slow death