Three out of four of the paragraphs in the article's solution were spent convincing people of the benefits to buying premium. Still feels like an ad despite the tiny mention of uBlock Origin at the very bottom.

I do agree that Youtube, premium isn't bad value. But I refuse to support google or youtube directly with my money. If I ever want to support a creator, I can throw them a couple dollars on patreon and help them far more than buying premium ever would have.

My reasons:

• I don't want a YouTube account, that just makes it easier for Google to track me
• premium costs too much relative to how much I use it (Nebula is more reasonable, which I do pay for)
• I can support my favorite creators in other ways (merch, patreon, etc)

I don't pirate. I buy movies and TV shows and rip them to my media server, I buy lots of video games both physical and digital, and I buy books if my library doesnt have it or I want to keep it on my shelf. I'm not against paying for things, I'm against my privacy being violated.

I watch a few hours of content a week, and I'd be happy cutting down a bit. I don't follow any of the big names, rarely listen to music, and really only watch videos from a handful of channels, most of which are a waste of time anyway. If Google blocked my ad blocker, I'd be fine just not watching YouTube anymore.

$14 is too much, I think $5 is about as much as I'd be willing to pay, or $1/channel. Give me that and I'll consider signing up, despite my misgivings about Google.

I read that. But the way the article is written suggests that the workaround they're implying is to buy YouTube premium. I am not per se against YT premium, after all its normal business to take money and serve a product, but what my biggest cons are

1. The price
2. I already use all of the mentioned premium features and more but for free

For example: YT music -> ReVanced (background play, no ads) YT App -> ReVanced (no ads, Sponsorblock, no shorts) YT on browser -> Extensions (uBlock, Sponsorblock, block yt shorts)

If I were to pay for premium and use the regular app, I would lose that functionality and 130€ per year. This money would support a company whose business model involves extensive collection of personal data, which is then sold to third parties, effectively contributing to the global surveillance infrastructure.

I would rather not use YouTube than pay for it.

About YouTube premium :

1. I don't like the idea of spending money for Google. I don't find it very ethic to use their services in the way I do but no replacement has come up for years. I try to mitigate by donating to some content creators and I would love to pay a subscription to something like Nebula if there were at least 3 people I follow in there.
2. I would use an adblocker even if I paid. On my phone Tubular is just a much better experience : multi platforms, aggregates my subscription, no addictive low quality suggestions and lightweight while still featurefull (and it integrates sponsorblock 🤫)

Also on my previous phone the YouTube app was super slow and would regularly crash because of RAM shortages. This was 6 years ago though.

The thing about it costs about the same as Spotify is not really true. I have been using Spotify family for a long long time (maybe 10 years). I use it with 5 other "family" members and we split the costs.

I think it's decent value but I'm already running extensions or mods to skip the in-video ads, so I may as well just block ads for free too.

If YouTube Premium ever got an official sponsorblock, it'd become a good deal.