What country did you last have issues with? I'll try it out. I use Nord for downloading videos, and it seems that YT have flagged every single Dutch and UK IP I try as a potential bot, restricting access completely without being logged in.

There also seems to be a huge issue where YouTube has recently delisted a significant amount of videos - and I don't mean unlisted or private. I mean they just don't exist through channels or yt-dlp any more. I think YT is killing creators

Try something like a Revanced patch for your youtube client on your phone if you haven't already - mine's been chugging along with a VPN for ages

I've had a VPN on my router for years. Past 2 years have become increasingly difficult. Many websites are blocking them.

I've tried many major providers. Now I'm looking at small non profits offering a VPN, hopefully with better results.

The free Proton VPN servers have been getting hit for like 3 months now. And they're constantly changing what free server is available to use. The American servers have been shut down plenty of times, but the ones in other parts of the world are working fine, though slower to connect.

Try countries in Southeast Asia and South America. It works fine for me there.

Countries that are less keen on allowing Google's monopolistic practices seem less likely to get blocked. Southeast Asia in particular. I'm sure Google knows what will happen if they try to play bad cop when regional telecoms are ready to eat their lunch. People will go to Billibilli and whatnot, immediately, and their other services will be replaced shortly afterward.

Not sure. You can use invidious as an alternative to watch the vids.