Back in the day Google was a more respected company than they are now. YouTube was one of the first expansions they did, as they merely began as a search engine only Adding advetisements to video in the current aggressive manner is really something that they began doing years later, but YouTube was already so big then, they could get away with it. It it was really 15 years ago that Google was founded, I must have been 30 myself back then. Back in those days YouTube even used Flash to make showing videos possible.
And, apart from illegally uploaded stuff, it back then only contained amateur stuff.
Ah, those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end, we'd sing and dance, forever and a day!