That is a fair point and I hear you. The encrypted account idea is interesting. How about an export/import feature where you can save your channel list as a file and reload it anytime, or even a shareable link that encodes your channels in the URL like PCPartPicker does with builds. It would be faster than login. And no account creation and no tracking as promised. Would that solve your problem?

Yes that would be cool. Just generally I'd say I'm ok with making accounts for 1000 other things that are a lot higher stakes info than my favorite youtube channels. But if it becomes a bookmark or something saveable than ok cool maybe that works.