YT is still performing A/B testing. So probably your on group A.

And I agree. Instant tab closure at any advert. I'm not going to watch five seconds of adverts on a 15 year old video of 30 seconds.

Sponsors, I'm fine with.

I'm in group B. The ads definitely make it harder to perform "mindless scrolling", but if I actually "need" to watch a video (e.g. a setup video for a product purchased recently) I'll just eat shit and watch the ads.

My favorite thing to do is mute unskippable ads (like on the Youtube app on my TV). Just cuz I can't skip it doesn't mean I have to actually listen or watch!

I only started getting hit a few days ago

I mean, I totally feel you. At the same time, I'm fine with a few ads. But holy balls, YouTube throws so many at you, it's unbearable. And it's the same ones over and over and over. Do they not have very many advertisers, or what? Also, I'm not going to be forced into paying for Premium, especially when they're still making billions of dollars in profit every year. They just need to keep making MORE money. Then after that, EVEN MORE. I mean for no real reason at all, they've jacked up the price of premium twice just recently...

It's like back in the day, a banner ad didn't really bother me. But 52 blinking ads all over everything with one paragraph of real text? Fucking bullshit. Just like YouTube.

Ad marketplace is a hell of a thing. Advertisers want your specific demographic and they’ll pay to dollar compared to others. So you see 4 companies ads 1000 times