I noticed a while ago that Safari's built-in media controls on the Touch Bar make it possible to skip ads on Youtube by swiping the scrubber to the end. It's very convenient, especially in the current circumstances :). No 5-second slowdown or whatever!
BTW, I'm running macOS Ventura 13.6.2 beta and Safari 16.2.
Honestly, and I know this is weird, but I just pay for premium. I can download videos and the only commercials I see are the promos the YTers include. Not for everybody obviously.