Yeah, FreeTube has been really solid for me. I'm dreading the day YouTube go the server-side ad injection route. It's surely inevitable, unless the costs to implement it outweigh the lost ad revenue maybe?
I'm resigned to probably giving up youtube (at least for a while, as the ad cat and mouse continues) in the not too distant future. Little of value will be lost... and going back to seeing ads is not worth the price.
I'd like to do the same, however on VLC (in Linux)... is there an easy way? (sorry for my ignorance)
EDIT: I found a tutorial and tried to open a random youtube video, I think I may be missing a codec or something. When I click play nothing happens, but I think it i accessing the video since I can see a thumbnail. I think this is a problem on my end.