> what's your reason to download/archive the videos instead of just streaming them from YouTube?
1. Removal of ads is a pretty big reason for many.
2. As you already note: you can't stream a video again if it or the entire channel has since been taken down due to copyright claim (spurious or otherwise) or other complaint. This may matter a lot more to some people than it does to you, depending on the content they are consuming.
3. Some may be downloading for offline play. You can do this with the official YouTube app too, but not without paying for Premium (which seems exorbitant to me) and still being subject to the takedown problem.
4. Local indexing: if keeping reference to videos for future rewatch or sharing, arranging then in your own structure may be more convenient than maintaining bookmarks to YouTube copies or searching for them each time.
5. Some mix of the above, and likely other reasons I've not considered/remembered.
1. Removal of ads is a pretty big reason for many.
2. As you already note: you can't stream a video again if it or the entire channel has since been taken down due to copyright claim (spurious or otherwise) or other complaint. This may matter a lot more to some people than it does to you, depending on the content they are consuming.
3. Some may be downloading for offline play. You can do this with the official YouTube app too, but not without paying for Premium (which seems exorbitant to me) and still being subject to the takedown problem.
4. Local indexing: if keeping reference to videos for future rewatch or sharing, arranging then in your own structure may be more convenient than maintaining bookmarks to YouTube copies or searching for them each time.
5. Some mix of the above, and likely other reasons I've not considered/remembered.