Late to the party ....
For people struggling with low bandwidth, latency, and older hardware (routers, computers), Steven Black's hosts file(s) can sometimes help, at a cost.
🔒 Consolidating and extending hosts files from several well-curated sources. Optionally pick extensions for porn, social media, and other categories. - StevenBlack/hosts
github.com
It is a bit of a double edged sword.
It sets thousands of host/domain names to an IP address of 0.0.0.0 blocking access to those hosts. The hosts are trackers, ad servers, malware servers, etc.
It slows browser performance slightly, a negative.
But it can stop or mitigate issues with Youtube or streaming or general web performance.
For example, I have an old HP Netbook with an Intel Atom proc. It will no longer run any contemporary "full" operating system well enough for it to be useful. With something lean like Sparky Linux, it mostly functions, but with Youtube videos, there are problems. There is skipping and stuttering. There is freezing when cache is depleted. Sometimes audio will continue with a black screen. With the use of the hosts file, these problems disappear. Blocking "extraneous" connections, frees up resources.
So what are the costs?
Some mainstream websites will not work, either not at all or only partially.
And there is an ethical cost. Many of the "extraneous" connections to your computer are not "extraneous" to the service provider whose video content you are watching/using. The connections are often part of their revenue stream, and you are ripping them off with the use of the modified hosts file.