Qualified yes is probably in order ( and more knowledgeable person can likely chime-in if I misstate something ). It is and always has been a cat and mouse game

Qualified yes is probably in order ( and more knowledgeable person can likely chime-in if I misstate something ). It is and always has been a cat and mouse game not completely unlike with game or movie piracy. As you stated, if you can see it on your PC, there is likely means to capture it. Still, notice how most of the low effort avenues are slowly being cut off one by one. I will use non youtube example. Not that long ago, I was able to rip blurays using off the shelf external bluray writer, but new firmware on currently sold drives remove that ability. Now, Google typically won't be ( and isn't ) everyone's hardware provider, but there are ways they could degrade 'non-sanctioned' experience in browser they can ( and do ) control. Granted, in Firefox ( and other non-google browsers ) it may not be as simple, but future there is not as straightfoward either given Mozilla's trajectory and financial dependence ( and moves ). In short, I agree with you but note that initially it was genuinely trivial to download youtube videos. This has changed over the years.