I know what you mean Patio. I was on a Website a couple of hours ago where people were complaining about the 'new' YouTube layout. Nobody likes it, and despite the thousands? who have complained about it, does Google take any notice of them? Do they h-e-l-l as like. You can either take it or leave it. I just wish I had the finance to start a clone of YouTube.
I've been trying to change the layout of YouTube back to the classic layout in Chrome by following what his guy says.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVnv3HgE30Q It will not revert back to the classic layout in normal screen mode, the only way it will is if you hit the F11 key and enter full screen mode.
About a few years back when Flickr changed its layout, quite a lot of people deserted it and moved over to Ipernity. At one time there was no limitation on the amount of photos you could upload. You can still upload to Flickr, but those who do not want pay a subscription by going pro can only upload a maximum of 1000 photos. It's a kind of blackmail IMHO.
When you stop and think about it, you're not only paying your ISP to access the Internet, then if you want watch a full movie on YouTube you have to pay someone else. It's the same all over, a giant like Google comes along and puts in a bid for YouTube and starts to charge people. Wasn't YouTube owned by Yahoo? Maybe I'm wrong wasn't it free in those days?