My family and I have been using FF and ad-blockers for so many years now that we've forgotten what the 'real' web looks like.
And it's all thanks to people like Raymond Hill.
And it's all thanks to people like Raymond Hill.
I also started using the YouTube mobile website instead of the apps after getting 2 ads before a 3 minute video.
Have you tried NewPipe? https://newpipe.net
Mostly the benefits outweigh the downsides for me, for a lot of reasons: data export is a big one. The ability to download videos/audio is another. Background listening is another. It's also way more battery efficient than any of Youtube's official apps for video or music.
One thing I would recommend, the version in the offical F-Droid repo works, but you can also install the direct source in F-Droid, which will get updates/bugfixes much more quickly.
Same sometimes happens for me with a single video if I come back to rewatch/finish watching the next day. I can live with it too.
Long story short, it tried to use my phone as a disposable phone number. For about a month I was getting messages from adult dating sites, verification numbers for all sorts of services, and a few phone calls from bitcoin banks trying to verify my ID. Had I given the app permission to read my text messages, it would have been a catastrophe. Fortunately, I didn't and nothing bad happened.