Winston Sterzel, who is probably one of the "edge cases of popular Youtubers who lived there for years" you refer to, has a deep love for China and the Chinese people. He does not say that much, but I think I can see it in his videos, e.g., of daily life on the Chinese street.
He learned the language, bought a house there, got married, and did not want to leave.
I shittalked the government for a long time and got caught up in the various memes against the country before I decided to visit. I was afraid I'd be rejected (or worse, approved and arrested) and upon googling for similar experiences saw countless people freaking out about the same thing before going there.
Turns out they either don't check at all, or do check but aren't nearly as stringent as the US.
This ignores edge cases of popular Youtubers who lived there for years, made a career out of complaining, then were surprised when the government asked them to leave. Which still beats an El Salvador prison.