YouTube does allow you to download videos, but only through YouTube Premium officially — and only if the creator permits it.
For the longest time, I treated downloads as a backup feature I'd use before, say, a flight or when my network was acting up.
Microsoft Edge Opera Mozilla Firefox Google Chrome Brave Browser.
You're right; we've written a lot of articles about how to protect yourself over the years, but sometimes it can be confusing as to exactly what's happening behind the scenes.
Other than the usual internet connectivity issues, one of the most common causes for WhatsApp media download issues is lack of storage on device or improper storage permission.