I love the answer in the FAQ: https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/14404#issuecomment-3330980464

7. What about Selenium or a headless browser solution?

The yt-dlp maintainers have no interest in doing this except as a measure of last resort. A headless browser solution would be an admission of defeat and would go against the spirit of this project.

This sucks, but it is what it is. I'm glad there is actually a solution available.

I should also look into Deno for personal projects. Maybe I could utilize it myself for other stuff.

Welp; It's easy enough to download Deno.

Anyone caught with their panties down after they make it a requirement is responsible for downloading Deno to fix it for themselves.

I'm glad they're doing what they must to keep the project going; and moving this function to a more powerful engine isn't a bad idea...I hope other YT extracting tools will follow in these footsteps as well; leveraging a more powerful tool ain't a bad idea...and it might solve some of their own papercuts.

Why Deno?

Deno is sandboxed by default and does not allow filesystem or network access.

I'm glad to see they're using the safety-focused option by default.