The author's a sucker. YT premium pays for itself many times over.
Youtube music is also serviceable enough if you're not picky about mobile UX. Comes included with a basic yt premium subscription.
I'll always tell people, no other subscription - software or otherwise - comes close to providing the real-world value that yt premium does for that little money.
The principled position behind "you should install something" is that in the scenario you outline, you cannot just install something, and this is a kind of power over you that you are relinquishing to both YouTube and the TV manufacturer. You will not get it back.
If it's fair enough for Youtube to send me a video full of ads, then it's fair enough for me to run a program that removes the ads. The only way Youtube's business model actually works is either a) people watch the ads voluntarily, or b) they are able to force your computer to not do what you tell it to and instead to show you ads. Because all computers are general purpose computers, option b allows the server to impose arbitrary restrictions on you, not just reasonable ones. You might think watching ads is ok, but future restrictions (like fiat banning you from otherwise public content) might not be. That's the argument.
Of course, if everyone used an ad blocker then Youtube's business model would not work. But businesses are not entitled to a revenue stream.
Entirely depends on the TV IMO... I have no issues installing third-party YT clients on mine.
If people would rather pay money for the convenience, that's fine, I'm not going to stop them... that's what all software is anyway, even FOSS. Every abstraction layer in computing is just another level of saving time.
Nobody gets upset because your C or Python program wasn't written in Assembly, and then claims you're "just coding for convenience." Or when you use someone else's library.
Or, you didn't build your own house brick by brick... and make the bricks yourself, etc.
I don't have the time and energy for that.
If you are one person with one or two devices that you use YouTube on, and you're willing to make certain sacrifices, then yes I agree.
If you have a family of a few people, all with multiple devices that they might want to use YouTube on, that also use YouTube Music, then I don't personally think it's easier. I'd rather part with $30/mo and have back the time I'd spend dealing with the nonsense resulting from trying to do the ad block or alternative app route
And less mental effort as well, since the subscription forces to stay in guard for enshittification (are there now ads in my tier? Did the price go up?).
Also, some sponsored segments are good. For example, imagine I had skipped the legendary Thursday Boots ad read on Cumtown.
OTOH, I do begrudge them all the scams they have accepted ads for in the past.
You can pay them, but they'll return the favor by ruining you and your family's lives at your most vulnerable moment:
NewPipe/PipePipe are free
You are welcome
Firefox with uBlock Origin + SponsorBlock is the correct move.
If on mobile, Duckduckgo app has Duck Player.