I wouldn't call them 'better' alternatives. They're easier to install for sure. Personally, I've used revanced, newpipe, and libretube and love them all. I stuck with newpipe, since that's what my family uses now, and it's easier to troubleshoot when I have it too. And revanced takes some steps, more than just "install this package, done".
Which one of those do I pick if I actually want to be logged in and have Youtube keep track of my watch history, automatically synchronized between devices?
Revanced with MicroG. I use YouTube 50/50 on mobile and Shield (SmartTube) and if my watch history, subscriptions etc. didn't work, I wouldn't be using it.
I wouldn't call them 'better' alternatives. They're easier to install for sure. Personally, I've used revanced, newpipe, and libretube and love them all. I stuck with newpipe, since that's what my family uses now, and it's easier to troubleshoot when I have it too. And revanced takes some steps, more than just "install this package, done".
I'd say they are objectively better, because are independent, free & open source apps, instead of relying on patching Google's proprietary software.
Which one of those do I pick if I actually want to be logged in and have Youtube keep track of my watch history, automatically synchronized between devices?
Revanced with MicroG. I use YouTube 50/50 on mobile and Shield (SmartTube) and if my watch history, subscriptions etc. didn't work, I wouldn't be using it.