Yep. Switched to the F-Droid version and now the ads are gone. Also explains why the ads in the copycat version didn't integrate at all with playback controls

Yep. Switched to the F-Droid version and now the ads are gone. Also explains why the ads in the copycat version didn't integrate at all with playback controls or the rest of the app: Someone probably took the original apk, slapped the ads on as a separate thread/process inside the apk and never modified the app's original source.