If you want to be pedantic: "Google adds video pre-roll ad during which you are likely to see it"

It's not pedantic at all: if I look away and mute, which is perfectly allowed, versus use an ad blocker, what's the difference?

The outcome for me is identical. I don't see an ad, and I won't buy something.

It's the same reason why DVR recording was never piracy. It's the same thing as if I watched the show, except the DVR does it.

> if I look away and mute, which is perfectly allowed, versus use an ad blocker, what's the difference?

The difference is you still see the beginning of the ad and some people see a big part of it because they don't have the habit of muting and looking away out of fear of missing the beginning of the video for example.

> The outcome for me is identical. I don't see an ad, and I won't buy something.

You still see the beginning of the ad. Whether you buy something or not is not always what the ad is trying to do sometimes it's just raising awareness