Sorry, but until such things are rectified, New Pipe is a hell no for me; -10/10, worse than vanced, cannot recommend sharp-edged user-unfriendly software. Even when it's OSS and privacy friendly.
For a similar case, see gnuPGP. We all know how that one ended up not saving the world :(
That being said, I can't find the cast button you're talking about.
I also can't find the sharp edges you mention[0] could you give other examples? In my experience I've just had it do what it says on the box with no fuss.
[0] though I'll admit my tastes are minimalistic and I avoid cloud tools as much as possible - either or both of those may color my views.
For example, I see not having access to Youtube account information as a positive.
My specific (brief) experiences include: Instead of playing the video..
- Wait forever while it spins.
- Crashes randomly. Repeatedly.
- No way to reference previously watched or liked videos.
- Atrocious, non-functional search.
Have all these bugs have been fixed in the past 6 months?
There's a history tab, I don't really use ot but looking over it now it looks decent, and can sort by most and last played.
The only issue I've had with search is that it doesn't return playlists, but my typical flow is to go to the profile page and follow a link from there so it hasn't bothered me.
Perhaps a hardware issue, or NewPipe handles spotty connections poorly or something.