Dont concider yourself alone, ive theorized this “shittification” for a while now, as its partly a phenomenon partly entangled with next generation. Tech companies will cater to youth, the ones with the most engagement in online platforms. Once that company then achieves monopoly status. Youth thrives in its tribal behavior of either belonging or not. Then these companies basically have free reign try to put as much shit into it to prolong the usage and hours spend because they will know that regardless people will use it or you are out. Snapchat and new reddit UI exemplify exactly that.

i use magnetdl.com, no ads or pop up nonsense

I use IVPN, mainly convenience as you can just pay for it for a week at a time. Also nice is you can make an account without email. You just get a string like an activation code.

“microtransactions” “exclusivities”. Average silicon valley update gruel. The best that comes out of this is probably competition, while i like discord basic featureset as its solid, the UI is genuinly one of the worst things i have experienced.