YouTube hiding the skip button does not make people watch ads. It makes people use ad blockers or leave the platform. The user response to friction is not acceptance, it is circumvention. Google knows this and does it anyway because the loss of a few million users is cheaper than the ad revenue they squeeze from the rest.

The skip button has been shrinking and delaying for years now. Google knows exact user behavior data and keeps pushing the minimum watch time up because the numbers tell them users will tolerate a little more. The ‘skip in 5 seconds’ promise died quietly and nobody held them to it. How long before the 5 second countdown itself becomes a ‘watch and wait’ feature?