...or installing newpipe (from f-droid) or similar.
That may be the case then. My desktops don't have that problem. A tablet-specific "feature."
That’s on YouTube.
It used to be disabled so Google could demonstrate how bad iOS was at multi-tasking (while a background audio API was available for a very long time), nowadays it’s disabled on both platforms because they want to sell premium.
TLDR: corporate greed
Same on iOS. I would have to pay around 20 USD / month for YouTube Premium.
I pay 17.99 Euro for a 'Family' subscription, not for the background option, but simply because on the one hand I want to signal encouragement for an internet model not relying exclusively on advertisement and selling your data, and on the other hand having to play the watch-add/skip-but-not-until-you-have-been-exposed-enough just to watch a video each time is horrible.