Neo is right. From my personal xp. i had a small monetized account before the requirements, i earned 8$ in a year and it is still there (maybe?) as you can't take out small amounts. youtube is still earning from my content as i do get 500+ views a month and i didn't upload for more than a year.

second one is SPK Network account there are 140 videos uploaded from the CTT podcast. Long form content gets almost no views, shorts get some, but for shots to be monetized you need 10 million public Shorts views in the last 90 days 😂

one of the solutions for long term monetization is what 3speak is doing with @brianoflondon Value4Value and Podcasting 2.0. Podcasting 2.0 is also developing something for music. Interesting stuff.