Compared to youtube-dl and an offline media player like mpv, youtube's web interface is absolute garbage for consuming content. The only thing it's half-good for is discovery because it shows thumbnails of the videos and links to related videos.
Useful things that I can't do on through youtube's web interface:
1 - archive videos (so many videos have been taken down and would be lost forever to me had I not had an offline archive of them)
2 - quickly play through a ton of videos on demand, offline, without waiting to load the video (and the ads) -- skimming through dozens of offline videos takes seconds, but I'd have to stare at my browser loading forever to accomplish the same thing through a web browser
3 - make use of many useful features of powerful media players like mpv... just yesterday I needed to invert the colors on a screencast because I was watching it at night and the video's white window background was blinding me.. I could do this instantly in mpv, but absolutely impossible on youtube
4 - remix the video or otherwise alter it to my needs using powerful offline video editors.. youtube's offerings here are again a sad joke in comparison (as are most web tools compared to offline tools)
5 - not have to sit through a single stinking ad
If youtube could have just offered simple download links for their videos this would not be a problem.
But, no, they need you to be glued to their website and bound hand and foot to their service for as many hours of the day as they can bleed out of you.
6 - listen to public talks, presentations and soundscapes while doing something else with my mobile device, or letting the screen sleep in my pocket. YouTube requires the video to be on-screen or it stops playing, which makes it completely useless for listening to things. Other video sites are much better for this.
(I don't need advice on how to get around this thanks, I already know how to. But that's another of YouTube's crappy standard behaviours.)
You have a point to some extent, it could be valuable to offer download buttons on a lot of videos. However, YouTube is only as valuable as the content it serves, and the content creators are the ones putting ads in their videos and who would be unhappy if there were download buttons on everything
Useful things that I can't do on through youtube's web interface:
1 - archive videos (so many videos have been taken down and would be lost forever to me had I not had an offline archive of them)
2 - quickly play through a ton of videos on demand, offline, without waiting to load the video (and the ads) -- skimming through dozens of offline videos takes seconds, but I'd have to stare at my browser loading forever to accomplish the same thing through a web browser
3 - make use of many useful features of powerful media players like mpv... just yesterday I needed to invert the colors on a screencast because I was watching it at night and the video's white window background was blinding me.. I could do this instantly in mpv, but absolutely impossible on youtube
4 - remix the video or otherwise alter it to my needs using powerful offline video editors.. youtube's offerings here are again a sad joke in comparison (as are most web tools compared to offline tools)
5 - not have to sit through a single stinking ad
If youtube could have just offered simple download links for their videos this would not be a problem.
But, no, they need you to be glued to their website and bound hand and foot to their service for as many hours of the day as they can bleed out of you.