I haven't watched a single Ad on YouTube on TV (SmartTube), mobile (ReVanced), or PC (Firefox + uBlock origin) since it became unbearable... five years ago or so?
+1 for Vinegar. My only real complaint is that I use Firefox as a daily driver, and Vinegar only works with Safari. Even though Firefox is using the Safari engine under the hood on iOS, (because Apple doesn’t allow third party browser engines like Firefox’s Gecko, and forces everyone to use WebKit instead,) it doesn’t support Safari extensions.
I’m fine with switching to Safari to watch YouTube… But since Firefox is my default browser, YouTube links automatically open in Firefox. There isn’t a way to specify that I want everything except YouTube to open in my default browser.
SmartTube for TV and ReVanced/uYouPlus for Andriod/IOS devices. SmartTube can be tricky to set up depending on the TV, but the mobile apps are relatively simple to get working.
There is no ReVanced or uYouPlus for iOS. You have to sideload that shit, cuz YouTube is too far up Apple’s ass for them to allow something like that on the App Store.
Ironically, they allow Vinegar. But only because it’s a Safari extension (and Apple likes when people use Safari more than they like the money from YouTube.)
And then you're stuck constantly reminding every family member which app to use on which device when they come to you because they're getting ads or something isn't working right.
For a single power use that's fine, for a family with kids, it's nearly impossible without going crazy and killing them.
Not sure about currently but at least a year or two ago creators could see the split of premium views & income vs free views and income and premium views always paid out more
They still can. Whether premium or ad supported views pays more depends on the channel and the value of the adverts that are streamed on it. For channels / topics that advertisers are keen to appear on the ad supported views pay more, for more niche interests the premium views pay more.