As in, would the channel be losing out on money? Because I don’t want to take away from small creators if there is a retention rate for viewership of that exact segment, but I would prefer to skip any of the “but first check out this shitty mobile game”.
Not really. Content creators get an upfront amount to run the ad then either a fee per click on the sponsored link or when their code is used at checkout.
So by watching the ad and not using the promotion is the same as not watching the ad.
Also, your “view” still counts towards the content creator’s metrics (assuming you watch enough of the video). So the creator can use your view to sell more ads, whether you watch them or not.
It’s likely that more savvy advertisers are using video heat maps to see which types of videos get people to actually watch the ad, but the metrics on that are probably not as informative as just view count.