Look here's the thing with YouTube and subs, you have to remember that subs are still real people and the only reason that they should be subscribing is because they enjoy your content and want to see your videos pop up in their sub boxes. If this company or whatever just employs people to go and subscribe to these channels I'm pretty sure that channel wouldn't even personally be used by them so yes your sub count may get a bit bigger but nothing really happened. All you have to do is just make your channel a friendly and informative and/or entertaining environment (depending on your channel type) so that they will want to stick around, I know it is easier said than done but keep at it and you'll get there.
As for a network I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be happy with sub4sub and don't rush into one unless you absolutely need one. I know that there are many big YouTubers out there who are still with adsence and are managing just fine, they will only really help your channel out if you are big. The only reason I joined my network was because at first I didn't have a bank account so wanted to get money through PayPal and I also wanted to ensure a monthly payment for monthly subscriptions I have, now that those facts are no longer an issue I am actually contemplating leaving, not because they are a bad network or anything but I just feel like I am not big enough to really benefit from them yet. To add to that I actually remember one of a certain network's staff (I forgot who exactly he was and where he was from) said on video creators said about this exact issue and he pretty much summed up why bigger channels get better treatment. He basically said that by splitting your earnings with the network you are basically paying them that much money to help them, so if you get £100 per month and have a 90/10 split, you can't expect them to fully support your channel and personally assist you to grow with only £10, it just isn't logical.