There's some content creators that I get value from and watch on Youtube.
From time to time I get the desire to donate a couple of euro to them, however, most of the times they either have Patreon or nothing at all. Sometimes they have Ko-fi - then there's no problem.

I try to avoid giving money to US businesses as much as realistically possible. But I'm wondering whether I should make an exception here. What are your guys' thoughts on this?

I mean you are already ln youtube... Maybe they have merch shops and you can use that as an option to contribute to them or use their codes when it's a reasonable European brand, they advertice.
And sometimes just commenting and liking the vid helps them out to boost their algorythms.

I never really thought about it but there are patronage and crowdfunding options from Europe such as Liberapay.

Is the content creator European? Does the US-based payment processor take fees? Those are the questions I'd ask. If you don't like the answers, I'd reach out directly to the content creator and ask if they'll take a donation via a more acceptable payment system. Though, be warned, that's kind of a red flag. "Hey, sign up for this thing you aren't using, link your bank account to it, and I will send you money." I'd probably ignore that message. So, maybe if there are a few you use, ask them if they take any of those.

TBF there is hardly an alternative to YT unless you like roving packs of trolls and white supremacists who frequent the decentralized alternatives (becuse they're a beacon ti people banned from the main site and also crypto bros)

And given the cost of servers and storage right now, probably won't be for a while.

That said, I oersonally deleted a 13 year channel and never look back.

Nope

Just checked Patreon's fees:

on Patreon's standard plan you pay a 10% platform cut on everything you earn plus payment processing of 2.9% + $0.30 per charge.

So if I donate 5 eur roughy 1 eur will be going to Patreon.

I also thought about reaching out but I feel it's a bit... weird asking them to do such a thing for a small donation.

I'd buy some merch from their direct webshop.

Why feed a "platform"s greedy throat instead?

Do whatever you feel like doing.

Take buy european as a best practises not as law from god, you could end up renaming lakes and shit.

Maybe, but perhaps contact them and say you'd prefer to suppport another way... they just might not be aware

Ko-Fi is British and Steady is German

Message them to use european platforms and reward the ones that do.

It's a bit like credit cards, there is seldom alternative.

I take it practically. I use android instead of sailfish mobile device, at work need to use windows, and I use credit cards. So I use also US based platforms to support content creators when there is no alternative.

I heard Liberapay and OpenCollective uses Paypal in the backend, but I would need to verify.

Oof. I might even consider a bitcoin wallet over paypal.

I wonder if Kofi or Steady use american backend systems? Most of the world's fintech is built on some ancient proprietary IBM COBOL libraries, it's kind of annoying at times.