Re: "I have a hard time believing"
For some reason my combination of browser addons seems to be holding YT adverts at bay for the ever shrinking list of channels with videos that are worth watching, but on devices with only official app support (like the Playstation)... holy hell, how can anybody watch that shit is beyond me?! Pre-stream ads, unskippable ads, 30-god-damn-minute long ads, ads that now have a silent pause after it finishes (which, like the annoying silent car advert on UK terrestrial TV, subconsciously makes you look up at it), all of which seem like every few minutes.
I can't say I've ever used YT less which, and I'm no expert in these matters, seems a little bit counter productive if the whole operation is based on eyeball time. Sure, YT/Alphabet aren't a charity, running a site like YT with all the costs that entails ain't cheap and they have to make money somehow but there has got to be a better balance; at this rate it's not going to be long before we'll have content breaks in the middle of the adverts instead.