Install Firefox. Add uBlock Origin. No more ads on Youtube.
1) There is no tracking done, my privacy is not violated
2) At least the YouTuber is willing to debase themselves for the ad.
My main gripe for blocking ads is privacy and in-video segments where the presenter says stuff does not violate my privacy.
It just has no killer features. Once it will have that one, https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+people+use+ad+block...
But I think it’s an empty threat. Google cannot really do anything with it without hurting itself. It will lose all arms races because anti-ads anti-drm community incentives are high and will remain so. “Annoying the whole humanity even more” isn’t an easy business model.
slipstreaming the ads into the content stream itself
All that energy only for a user to see a black rectangle rendered over a video by sponsorblock.
That means it will take many years if a not decade or more for YouTube to implement new protocols and drop old ones without it causing problems to significant user base .
If the user base that hacks around ads is < user base that will loose access by implementing something like above , economically it makes sense not to do so.