NewPipe has had multiple unfixed regressions around opening videos, the pop-up player, and losing the time index of the current video.

They started (for me) in the version that addressed the youtube change then the last two did nothing to fix them (for me) I used NewPipe for years many hours a day on multiple tablets and this recent issues are the only ones that's a showstopper - I'm on Vanced until the next update.