[thefurdrake]

Yeah, sorry, this feels like a strawman. The adblock issue is only the most recent and exciting of the multitudinous pile of suck Youtube has been generating the last 5 years or so.

The content discovery genuinely sucks. Being forcefed tiktok cancer content (shorts) and needing to install plugins to remove that shit from /my/ browsing experience is asinine. I just checked Blocktube, too: I have 1012 blocked channels, and the list constantly grows, because their "algorithm" is less competent than their search function somehow, and I'm constantly shown bullshit I'm not interested in. If blocktube couldn't programmatically block all videos with <1k views or <120 seconds of content, that blocklist would be at least twice as large.

So what is this delightful, friendly, relaxing experience worth to me?

Zero. $0. Nil. Nul. Null. 0. False.

I will pay them nothing and continue using their resources to the detriment of the multinational megacorp until it becomes more difficult than `yt-dlp $url`, after which I will replace their valueless time-wasting experience with something else.

Because their product (trying to recreate cable television) has no value beyond wasting my time.

And to head off the "But muh creators" argument:

I don't care. Between having to install plugins to remove ads AND being forced to constantly watched 2+minute inline sponsorship ads (which I tolerate a single time, after which they're skipped; I already know about the product and I'm not interested), I just don't care anymore. I will not be advertised to constantly. I will not comply. I haven't watched cable TV since 2006, and I'm not about to start now.