I read Ray William Johnson, Sxephil, EpicMealTime, FPSRussia, Ellen, Machinama, Smosh, and the top YouTubers make thousands or more a month from those ads on YouTube, and none of them got banned yet, and most of them been on YouTube for a few years.
I think Smosh was on YouTube from the very beginning when YouTube opened.
Ray William Johnson is the first YouTube Millionaire, so even if he got banned he still get to keep the money he earned from YouTube.
It stinks that people get banned from making money on YouTube, but I think if you have good content like Ellen, Sxephil, Ray William Johnson, or Smosh, you can still make money other ways like using YouTube to advertise your branded T-shirts and stuff you sell, and do sponsored videos like a lot of the Tech Vloggers/reviewers on YouTube which get paid from GoDaddy, and Netflix for talking about sales, and products the company is selling.
I read joining a YouTube Networks like Machinama, Revision3 (owned by Discovery Channel), StyleHaul and Maker Studios can make you less likely to get banned, and the networks help you promote your videos on their channels, and help you find sponsors like Netflix, Go Daddy, and Roku which pay you to promote their products in your videos.