As far as the android app goes I disagree. While there are minor improvements, there are major steps backwards in offline playing, library management and account management. An entirely frustrating experience trying to use the app.

I get that different products would be pretty siloed within their corporate structure, so I know that they weren't just going to use the YouTube code. However, why are products that are released well after plenty of other apps have forged a path so that the new app can research what works and doesn't work, what do people like/not like, and all of that type of basic information just so abysmally ignored so that this "new" thing is so inferior?

If you're not the first pioneering version of something, you better be doing everything the others are doing, but better. Otherwise, what's the point of your product?

I've been out of Google for over a decade, but my understanding is that their advancement metrics are still rather broken in incentivizing people to reinvent the wheel and call it new and innovative, rather than link some other team's code and contribute patches back.

Sure if you don’t remember the vastly better user experience the app had pre-material (I call it googles Swing skin) design.

There will never be block as much as - on Google search doesn't work the way it used to. Imagine you blocking someone paying a fortune to be relevant.

Pro tip: you can use separate brand account for YT Music without any additional fee.