I have had the privilege to grow up in a very affluent family and get a good education. (Not saying that in a bragging way) My father always told me to learn on my own, but their was one thing has has/and still does repeat to me over and over again as the reason for his success in business and life. He has always told me to do things for your passion and take your passion farther than you ever imagined. Once you have truly become successful in that, then the money will come on its own. I also want to get my channel partnered, and I had my old channel partnered, but not for the money. I just want to branding and the feeling of accomplishment that comes from getting the partnership. I would sign with Machinima if they took every penny that I made, because it was my goal from day one when I started my first channel to work my way up to a Machinima partnership. This strategy has already proven itself in my life so far. For example, I develop iPhone apps. I worked really hard to create a beta of my first app, and I released it to the app store for free download. To my surprise, I was offered some advertising, and I accepted it with the intent to put every dollar I earn in to advertising for my own applications. This has already begun to bring a good sized income to me, and I never intended to make a dime. ( I am going to reinvest it though) To me if you pursue partnership, then you become in pursuit of making an income come out of Youtube. If a network pursues you then you have a little happy accident and you gain some money from your videos. Everyone has their own opinions though, and I respect yours, as it does also make logical sense in some ways to take the offer with the highest CPM. Also, as for Machinima's perpetual contract, that may be in contract but it was never really perpetual. If you threatened to take legal action, they would always let you out of partnership as a small channel. They knew it would be a waste of their money to go to court, and they also knew they would lose. Perpetual contracts NEVER hold up in a court. That is why they switched to a 2-3 year term (and they got complaints like crazy) , which I do agree is a long time to be unhappy. That said, most networks use a 2 year contract anyways. And restaurants do pay you to eat ice cream. They pay you with joy.
I'm done rambling now. This is my opinion. A lot of people probably disagree, and I accept that.