I'm currently in the process of switching from YouTube to Piped and was getting fed up with rewriting YouTube links myself. I finally found an extension that can do this with a relatively easy setup:
Piped redirect is too early, YouTube is still actively opposing attempts like Piped and because of that Piped only works sometimes, on certain instances, and that's not what anyone wants. It's worse than having a predictable ad skip to navigate.
I applaud the effort, but the Piped application needs to be stabilized. Not at all ready for prime time.
As much as I like the effort, I fear that if it reaches a critical mass of popularity, Youtube will find a way to oppose it even more, making the experience shittier for everyone involved.
Well I've been using it for a while now on android and can't complain. I don't miss any videos from channels I'm subscribed to and It's waaay better than using YouTube privacy-wise.
As long as it works I'll be using it.