Two days ago I noticed when watching through the app on my phone that I could no longer just skip ads, and the trick of reporting them to skip didn't work anymore either. I effectively had to just sit and wait.
That same day I got NewPipe, imported my subscriptions, and honestly even if this is just a phased trial or something, I won't be going back to the standard YT app.
Creators make pennies from ad revenue. If I want to support them, I'll make a donation or subscribe to their Patreon or something.
I won't just sit and suffer a slew of ads while my data is harvested under the false pretense that it's all to support the creators.