NewPipe is kind of janky, but so much better than the official client. It seems to have the features that youtube wants you to pay for, just by not deliberately crippling the software.
The only thing it's really missing is comments, but some people consider this a feature. (Honestly though, on high quality small channels the comments will often be worth reading, so I do miss it sometimes.)
Easy to get to the comments if you want: Three dot menu -> Open in browser.
Background play (without ads) is perhaps the only feature I use newPipe for