Well currently they're delaying the video start by the time it would have taken the ad to play. It's still better than having to actually watch ads, but blockers are not in the best position right now.

On your TV?

Actually, YouTube is cracking down on adblockers.

So while you might not feel the pain now, you will eventually.

Also changed how ads are served so they wouldn't be a known security issue. Intrusive or not I will block all of them until security improves.

The ironic part is that there was a time where I'd watch hours long compilation videos of funny ads, and even now I watch 90s nostalgia ones set to vaporwave mixes. Hell, every person and their grandmother I knew at one time watched the Superbowl "just for the ads".

At some point, the goal of marketing shifted from "How do we keep your attention/whimsy" to "How can we force unwilling participants to comply?" Fuck that fascismo shit.

Peertube, but lacks content.

It's all fine and fun until Google prevents people from installing third party APKs in a few months...

Yeah you're literally part of the problem lol

You're actively funding enshittification, at least the rest of us are innocent

Ublock origin has been working for YouTube for me, they've had some rough patches where YouTube updated and then they had to update, but it's been smooth for the past couple years.

Download the videos with yt-dlp and watch them locally. If you have a home server, you can set it up to automatically download new videos from specific playslists or channels and add them to Jellyfin.

The simple answer is to not use YT, coming from someone that uses YT. Also, if there isn't already, there will be something developed that will do the trick. It's a game of cat and mouse. If they can feed them, then there will be a way to detect them and block them. At least that's my expectation anyway.