The problem I have with YouTube here is that their behaviour reinforces the notion that copyright is always held by large media companies, and infringed by individuals. To be fair to them, this is far and away the biggest use case on their service. But--as your experience shows--the dice are loaded to favour this balance. As an individual, Google makes it hard for you to appeal their decisions; and they also make it hard for individuals to stake their own copyright claims. YouTube may be a popular tool, but the further Google goes down this path, the less populist it becomes. As an individual, you have to remember that you are not their customer, and that your rights are subordinate to the entities that are.