Referral links are okay, because the person who promotes the product gets rewarded for his or her efforts. It doesn't matter if he begs or commands, it is up to him, to decide what he is good at.
At the end, everyone gets theor share, so win win for all. Youtube sucks these days. After you post a video, they demonetize it on the same day or next day. And when asked for a manual review, they remonetize it. But the main time period of the first days of getting the views and therefore earnings is lost.