BlockTube is a must - can block specific channels from showing up, videos with "Journaling" and "changed my life", hide videos watched over 50%, etc.
Enhancer for Youtube is also super useful: disable shorts entirely, autoplay next only on playlists, tweak number of videos per row, default playback speed, default theater mode, etc.
As another commenter said, Youtube is one of those sites that really requires multiple plugins to be useful :/
People keep rolling out this defence over and over in this thread, but look at those who started on anything else. For example, I've never used Photoshop, but moved from MS paint level to Paint Shop Pro (I think 6? 7?) and had to learn that from scratch. The experience was mostly intuitive, things were more or less where you expected and did what you expected, and there was solid help available under the help menu.
I have tried to use GIMP on dozens of occasions, and it always surprises me in the worst ways, or bounces me off to search the web for a howto. Simple things like: I want to select a rectangle, move/resize the selection, then crop the image to that selection. Or I want to arrange two images side-by-side for comparison, crop to the smaller one, to export a side-by-side. Pretty much every attempt at doing something other than colour curve adjustment has resulted in a faceplant. Eventually I gave up switched to Krita.
These restrictions are super-annoying indeed, especially with no way to override them. Example: I like mouse gestures. People say oh yes, you can have mouse gestures in Firefox, here, there are several extensions. Well, open a new tab with a mouse gesture. Cool. Now try close it. Same goes for any other "special" page.
If you keep to the middle ground, it's not too bad. My journey started by ordering an inexpensive switch testing set with a bunch of Cherry/Gateron switch types, using it as a fidget toy around the desk for a few months, and concluding I liked the Cherry MX clear switches the most (no loud clicking sound, bit more actuating force, easier to feel actuating force than browns).
Result: got a WASD keyboard with clear switches in 2017 and have had no issues since, no sign of any wear, and little need to go down the endless rabbit hole. You're right though, the market for rabbit-holers has somewhat exploded.
Enhancer for Youtube is also super useful: disable shorts entirely, autoplay next only on playlists, tweak number of videos per row, default playback speed, default theater mode, etc.
As another commenter said, Youtube is one of those sites that really requires multiple plugins to be useful :/