Kagi! You can block websites so they don’t show up. It’ll also flag websites that contain a lot of spam or ads.

I’ve had a consistently unbiased experience with Tangle: https://www.readtangle.com/about/

Is it possible that your phone is killing the VPN client to free up memory? Does it reconnect immediately upon reopening OpenVPN?

I’ve been using their GrayJay desktop app, and I’ve enjoyed it so far.

I haven’t checked out FreeTube but maybe this is the push I need.

I’ve had a good experience with GrayJay. It’s a bit young and missing features but it’s never broken for me.