I have received a 'Final Reminder' from Youtube that if I do not link my account to google I will be unable to use it. I have only ever used Youtube to watch the odd video. As far as I know, do not even have a Google account.
From comments posted on a Google forum it seems that many people are incensed by this move.
What are the implications if I ignore the message?
But do you need a YouTube account anyway? Maybe there are certain things open only to members (such as adult content) but normally anyone is free to look at anything there without having an account.
As you say jno, I may as well set up an account even if I do not use it. I suppose the comments on the forum I saw earlier were from people who used google as their main email account.
In case it is important to you: if you do set up a gmail account, your Youtube user name will be the gmail email address, unless you change it to something else (settings > profile setup).
snags -
I do not remember ever having a gmail account; but when I clicked on the message link I was asked to reset my password.
Sometime long ago I must have set up an account with them and never used it as it does not appear in my accounts/password list.