It seems YT started another attempt at blocking alternative clients. They changed something in their API and both SmartTube and Tubular (NewPipe fork) are completely broken. Apparently it started happening this past week, but we personally just felt it today.
Edit: SmartTube already has an update but still not working for 4K videos it seems. Tubular still not working but it might be due to the upstream (NewPipe) is still working on a fix.
Me, today. But with newpipe. YouTube isn't a necessity. It's an entertainment. The moment it becomes too annoying to use, is the moment we stop using it. That's how entertainment products work... or should work.
Of course. Same here. But those videos would work on any network, not just Google's. The reasons they're there are plenty, and I won't pretend to know them all. However yt started as an entertainment space, and shifted into other spaces. What I'm proposing, is that we can have those spaces elsewhere, but we need to start somewhere. The easiest way to get people to start doing something, is by making it entertaining.