>You seem to operate under the presumption that content and culture generally can only be created on major platforms. Nothing stops creators from finding other spaces to post their content. It's what sub-cultures have done pretty much throughout time -- find alternate spaces to explore ideas that might be outside of the mainstream.

Yes, I agree, this used to be how things worked. Counter-culture movement appears, gains some followers, some leaders, gains momentum, and gradually or overnight breaks into the mainstream.

And this is precisely what happened here - a counter-culture movement tired with the establishment, a lot of followers, some leaders, some momentum - but the moment where change would actually happen is now impossible.

>alternate spaces

What alternate spaces? If Joe Rogan moves his podcast to Apple Music, they are going to ban him. If he had stayed on youtube, they would have removed his channel. If he creates his own app, it's going to be banned in the play store and app store. If he moves to a smaller, existing app, it's going to be protested and banned.

Yes, it's technically possible, there are some options. But they're all terrible. They are not a way to reach the mainstream.