[westurner]

> would not send the video stream to you until the advertisement was done playing

Is this really what consumers prefer?

Logged-in users necessarily carry state in some way such that they are identifiable as a logged-in user. "Session cookies" (and 'super cookies' etc) are standard practice for tracking which users are logged in.

YouTube does not and has not required login to view creators' videos and shorts.

And now don't they - just YouTube, hopefully - have to require login for their TOS to be a recognized agreement that authorizes determining whether the user is logged in and not stealing hours of free services.