I have a lot to say on this topic, and I appreciate that you bring this up. Sadly, I have very little positive news for you. Copyright law is excessively strict, and a few years ago the internet was hammered with some rules that allowed for websites to be responsible for the content that other people post. Which means that if someone breaks a law on their website then the website can be held responsible. So when a copyright is infringed YouTube can be held liable for that.
In order to protect themselves YouTube gives the right of takedown to anyone, and grants an appeals process to prevent fraud. This is to prevent them from being held liable but also gives some power to their creators to prevent abuse (which is sorely lacking). This is the extent of YouTube's involvement with copyright issues. They do not stand up against abuse and they do not get involved in these cases. They let the creators and the copyright owners hammer out the issues. Because YouTube is not designating anything Fair Use does not apply in these cases; that is something that you have to defend yourself in court, it does not have anything to do with YouTube. They do not arbitrate the law.
Good luck in your appeal. I wish you the best, this is a tough battle to fight and one that has unfairly cost a lot of creators a lot of amazing content.
