Other than a quick boot, what separates this from going on a VPS provider and spinning up servers?

Simpler and easier seems to be the answer. How much does it cost to spread 8gbs RAM across some VMs? Most providers require additional of how many VMs over how many hours, what the specs kf each are specifically, etc. Then once you have it you're setting up an SSH key or shared password depending on use and they make the authentication simpler as well. Maybe wouldn't be great for a huge business but it's you just wanted the ability to play with an isolated server, it might be worth it.

Thankfully YouTube provides a lot more value to society than gen-AI.

This is a subjective value judgement and many disagree.

Doubtful. If you look at viewed content it’s probably 90% views from brainrot content.

To adults? Certainly. But keep in mind that many children are now growing up with this crap glued to their eyes from age 2:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=funny+3d+animal...

(That's just one genre of brainrot I came across recently. I also had my front page flooded with monkey-themed AI slop because someone in my household watched animal documentaries. Thanks algorithm!)

Not for me.

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