A big reason I have always used Invidious over the YouTube site for years now is due to the fact it loads fast on slow mobile connections and requires relatively little JavaScript on the client side. If we ignore video.js, then the HTML sent over the wire renders the vast majority of each page, and elements (besides the video player) are already interactable before the JS finishes loading. The headline alone makes me fear this is some gigantic JS bundle that wont render anything server-side, but I'd love to be wrong about that. In any case, the current Invidious interface is "good enough" for me. I'm not sure what complaints I could make besides lack of SponsorBlock in the video player.
One of the issues in the project page states "[t]he current Invidious UI leaves a lot to be desired", but I am not sure what they mean. Similarly, every feature in the README besides SponsorBlock support seems to already exist in the current frontend. The only other difference I can think of is that this project uses Svelte for its frontend, so I assume it's some SPA that will present a blank page for a very long time on my cellular network. Again, I'd love to be incorrect.
I agree, the current Invidious UI is great. Its snappy & is very lightweight.
Yes Materialious is a SPA, if you aren't comfortable with JS. Simply stick with Invidious's interface.
Materialious does provide some features what Invidious doesn't provide, like PWA support, RYD, Sponsorblock, Video resuming, inline chapters & additional theming. But Materialious isn't a replacement for Invidious's interface, just a alternative.
Maybe I'm not understanding what's meant by sponsorblock support? Sponsorblock works with invidious too and has worked for at least two years. There's a toggle that needs to be enabled in the addon (if I'm remembering correctly).
This is an alternative front end for Invidious. They aren't changing the stock invidious front end. This would be like the difference between reddit.com and old.reddit.com. Furthermore, this isn't even an official Invidious project. So it's very unlikely that the official invidious instance will ever adopt it. More likely that random instances of invidious will, or you can self host it.
but fear not, this doesn't touch invidious.com in any way.
One of the issues in the project page states "[t]he current Invidious UI leaves a lot to be desired", but I am not sure what they mean. Similarly, every feature in the README besides SponsorBlock support seems to already exist in the current frontend. The only other difference I can think of is that this project uses Svelte for its frontend, so I assume it's some SPA that will present a blank page for a very long time on my cellular network. Again, I'd love to be incorrect.