You can still block yt ads on desktop.

I don't think people understand that it would be trivial for Google to block anyone with an ad blocker from accessing any Google domain.

And if they did that, cut off the people who use the services but never pay, those people would complain.

It's not consistent but they do block users [0] when adblock is detected. I wonder how it goes internally and what's the actual reason that stops them for doing it full scale, but I've personally got the block so can confirm it's a real thing, and assume they won't be giving it up (of course workarounds also exist)

[0] https://www.techspot.com/news/107221-youtube-anti-ad-blocker...

>I don't think people understand that it would be trivial for Google to block anyone with an ad blocker from accessing any Google domain.

And little of value would be lost.