All the ways YouTube doesn’t feel like a Google app

That's fundamental problem with Google apps, every one looks different, made by different teams with different set of guidelines, messages now look different than Gmail for example

That said, one point in defense of the minimal height is the miniplayer. As media apps, YouTube, YT Music, and YT TV have to display playback controls just above the persistent navigation element. A tall bottom bar with another row of buttons above it would just cut into the viewing space for content.

Heavily disagree with that, the mini play is dangerously close to the system gestures, and sometimes I triggered the system gestures by mistake before the current redesign. It is still too close for my liking.

Edit: a thing that I hate about YouTube design is that it is really close to Material Design 3, but it sorta of misses most of the things that make M3 look coherent, so it just looks bad, like a knockoff M3 from someone that had to implement Material Design through a verbal description rather than looking at it

I feel like the back action is the one that trips me up. It seems like a coin toss in Android whether "back" is handled as "undo navigation" or "up to parent level" but YouTube seems to do the one I didn't expect.