I have the same reservations around jailbreaking. My only requirement was the ability to disable YouTube Shorts (I find it excessively addictive), which you can

I have the same reservations around jailbreaking. My only requirement was the ability to disable YouTube Shorts (I find it excessively addictive), which you can't do in the official app. SponsorBlock, ad blocking and playing videos in background were happy surprises that have significantly improved my YouTube experience. I haven't had any major issue with AltStore. As long as I have the Mail/AltStore server app running on my Mac, it tends to just work. If I forgot to open Mail or AltStore after a restart, the apps stop working and I need to reinstall AltStore from my Mac, but it takes under 2 minutes and might happen a handful of times per year. That's less than the the time I'd waste on YT Shorts in a day.