Google is SO data driven, and many people's objectives are going to be impacted by the reduced watch time.
They're going to have to (or already have) modify the objectives of many, many employees
Maybe you didn't try to play videos when they didn't update their fix yet.
If I go incognito I can.
FreeTube for now, I guess.
I never watched much of any creator-based content, just used it to browse for music, most of which was uploaded by someone other than the artist and, usually if I like it, I'll go and buy it directly from the artist/label. Someone's gotta pay for that hosting, though, right?
Sure, I'll tell my ad blocker to allow YT ads through, that's a compromise I'm fine with. But Google decided, arbitrarily, that that compromise isn't good enough and the mere presence of an inactive adblocker is enough for them to tell me to fuck off.
If that's how they're gonna be, then it's not gonna bother me at all to use Invidious.