Memes

In general I would agree, but as it pertains to Youtube adblock blocking - there is no gradual slide into degradation (apart from perhaps to do with the implementation of ads itself, though I'd argue they're less obtrusive now than in their original implementation many years ago).

There is fundamentally no way to adblock-block today which does not involve collecting info in a way that causes obvious privacy concerns. It's not somewhere Google can get to by taking little steps. The adblock-blocking that's been happening to date is easily circumvented. Logically an arms race between adblockers and adblock-blockers will ensue, except in practice it'd be like raising the stakes from a civil war re-enactment to actual nuclear war