I just use ReVanced. I like shorts and recommendations and don't really care about privacy when most of my feed is football highlights, K&P sketches, gaming channels and random bullshit comedy videos. But having a full open source alternative is still important.
Personally, I struggle to find an upside in the galaxy of downsides. I don’t want to trade my agency for convenience, regardless of the topic or venue.
I'm not the person you're responding too, but the negatives of recommendation algorithms on major social media platforms are well understood and documented in the media these days. I think this has urged a lot of people to reject them wholesale and find alternative ways to consume content (myself included; I only use YouTube RSS feeds to watch videos these days). Some downsides to recc algos include: monopolizing your attention for profit via ad revenue, incentivising addictive or compulsive behavior, subtle (or not so subtle) political radicalization or echo chambers, among other stuff.
If you don't find any of the above to be a problem, you don't have anything to worry about, of course.
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If you don't find any of the above to be a problem, you don't have anything to worry about, of course.