Recently anyways. The most egregious thing about Youtube, which is not terribly new, is the Shorts. If your video is short enough, it is auto-converted to a "Short", and the original aspect ratio gets cropped to be vertical orientation (for viewing on a phone, presumably).
Of course Google doesn't have to care about users because they have a dozen different monopolies. It's sad that they were allowed to get to this point.
However with that also being said Google is a menace
Unless it’s Google’s price, and network effects you want.
In which case…well, they’ve already told you.
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/shortsblocker-and-r...
I have ADHD. YouTube shorts are poison. I don’t want them. I keep clicking “not interested”. They go away for a bit, they come back, I waste hours of my life scrolling through them before I notice. I click “not interested” 20 more times to get a few days relief…
Even when you’re the customer, you’re not the customer.
I think a better way to phrase "if you're not the customer, you're the product" is "we don't want your money, we want you".