It's one of the browser add-ons I recommend the most. Together with an add-blocker it makes youtube into a very useful tool, instead of being a time sink. Additionally it makes it much harder to fall into an unhealthy echo chamber.
I can recommend the browser extension unhook. Going to youtube and seeing no recommendations forces you to use it as a tool. Searching for specific things and not letting yourself be led by recommendations changed the way I use it. Additionally to that I also have separate browser profiles. On my work profile I block youtube entirely
If you have an hour go watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCWAvcsnIFg. I think you can have change and new features in a more reasonable way. Btw. my opinion is you are not crazy there is a lot of change for changes sake