I have an extension that can individually disable all the most useless/addicting components of the Youtube site, such as shorts and whatnot. On the search page, I have turned on:
hide Shorts
hide For You
hide Trending
hide 'People Also Searched For'
hide Search Categories
hide Promoted Videos
hide Promoted Websites
hide Suggested Products
Do you know what Youtube has started doing? They are now inserting engagement slop DIRECTLY into the search results, as seen in the image above. It's literally a short, yet it's inserted like a video so you're forced to see it. The only possible way to remove it is by using a privacy frontend, as even on incognito mode, Youtube will look at the three videos you've watched and start inserting shit based off that.
Louis Rossman is right, they all have rapist mentalities... "just let me stick it in"
I've used Vanced, ReVanced, Newpipe, LibreTube etc. for years and finally just gave up with the neverending third part app hassle, got YouTube Premium and disabled watch history. Sure it's costly, but at least everything works, there are no ads and shorts don't work without watch history. Win some, lose some ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Same here. I know we're pariahs for admitting something so obvious, but sometimes the easiest way to get good service is to actually pay for it. Youtube Music alone is worth the monthly sub, since it is VASTLY superior to Spotify.
The problem is that YouTube music is vastly inferior to google play music.
I'm not a fan of services that make themselves worse and then charge you for it.
The paid experience is a decent one, but it isn't the same as service that I want. I want to control what I watch and not be fed what they think I want to watch.
But I don't disagree that paying for a good service is worth it.