Bro my position is very clear. I’d rather forget about YouTube entirely than let ads back into my life

While I think Google is a monster that needs to be destroyed, it’s silly to me that your two options are either block ads or leave. The third option would be pay for the service. If your only problem is the ads and not the tracking (which probably isn’t true, but it’s the only complaint you made in the comment), then paying for it is a valid solution. It shouldn’t be controversial to say video hosting costs money to run, which obviously includes YouTube. So giving it out for free is simply not a realistic option. You’re free to leave, but you won’t have anywhere else to go that meets the “free and no ads” requirement. If you realistically don’t want ads, you will have to pay. And if you’re fine with paying, YouTube is currently the platform with the most content to offer.

Honestly, I’m thankful paying is an option. I wish Google would offer a paid package overall to stop the tracking/data collection. I would literally just give them my money for actual privacy with their services.

The problem is that the paid option eventually gets ads anyway. See cable TV and soon Netflix.

The problem is that the paid option eventually gets ads anyway.

The problem is that YouTube hasn’t done something, but you think they will? Cable television has basically always had commercials. When it started, it was mostly just government broadcasts, but when it got popularly commercialized, adverts were introduced. Netflix has a paid option with ads, but they also still have an ad-free option, so that still doesn’t really substantiate your argument either.

There is no real evidence to think they will add ads to their paid service. Of course it’s possible, but we don’t need to make up things Google might do in the future to call them evil. There’s plenty of things they’re currently doing.

The pressure of ever-increasing profits demands it.