2. Search. YT search is ... reasonable. Not great, but it typically turns up what you want.
3. Incognito mode *ONLY*.
4. Invidious, if at all possible.
5. Watch, or more often, listen, through a third-party client. I generally "experience" YouTube via mpv. I'll cue up a list of URLs I'm interested in. This is the most effective and convenient way of curating a playlist I'm aware of. VLC can also play YT video directly. (Both support many, many, many other sites and formats, typically through yt-dlp or youtube-dl).
6. When using the YT client itself, disable comments and suggestions through a CSS manager, or uBlock Origin's "block element" feature.
Benefits:
- No ads
- No idiotic recommendations
- No tracking and pigeonholing
- No comments (excepting Invidious, though that offers the option of YT or Reddit comments should you prefer)