For IOS peeps: I’m using Orion browser, which supports some firefox entensions like UblockOrigin that blocks ads. Brave also works.

Downside is they’re missing a good number of features, and changing playback speed messes up the audio

There used to be a trick where you can skip ads in youtube app by pretending to report it. i’ve used that to skip the 2x30s unskippable ads over the years, but that was patched recently.

So instead of occasionally watching ads while scrolling through comments, I’ve now opt to watch youtube in browser with UblockOrigin. And good luck to google for playing catch-22 with adblockers.

Shame that I used to have youtube in my adblock whitelist

In this case its quite simple: the production process is cheap and easy enough anyone with a garage can replicate it in a week, where as flying to Korea takes weeks for visa and plane ticket and appointments scheduling