Unfortunately, that's not how these things work. I don't know of any mainstream platform that died because of ads.
You have to keep in mind the fact that the average person on this site has a total different attitude to technology and its warts than most other people.
But as you say, mainstream platforms with no competitors seem to get away with it.
Any tips??
Most wrap YT's website, add an Adblocker, and block certain APIs that prevent Picture-in-Picture, background playback, etc.
The small downside is that these apps can't use play services and thus you can't login to leave likes, comments, etc. Though you can use "Share" to open the same video in browser where you can login normally.
Google creates a shadow profile for you in that 3rd-party app, and after a few videos you watch the quickly associate you with your other profiles / shadow profiles. So, in a matter of hours or days YouTube will start recommend you content tailored to you, even though you are not logged it.
Works remarkably well.
Does it permit playing of videos audio-only? I use backing tracks on my Honor Play but it has terrible screen burn so after an hour of instrument practice my screen looks like the comments section (which keeps moving on YouTube)
* Traditional television.
* Online websites of traditional newspapers - they wouldn’t have moved to paywalling if advertising was working.
* MySpace (not directly, but a contributory factor).
they surely make something on advertising because the ads are present even behind the paywalls.