No more Youtube "search history"? Replaced by "recommended", with flame icons?

I was logged out from my youtube app on my Roku 3 a few days ago. I didn't do this, it must have been automatic. BTW, I am not a paid youtube subscriber, I am only registered with the free version.

After I signed into my youtube account again, the app no longer showed my search history. This was replaced by a list of recommendations by youtube. Each of these items now had a little "flame" icon as a bullet. I've never seen these before.

If I search for something, the search works. But when I go to search for something else, my previous search(es) are gone, and there is only this recommended list with the flame icons. These "suggestions" are either popular youtube videos which have nothing to do with my interests or searches, or in some cases are somewhat related subjects I've searched or viewed... but not the actual search terms I've used.

One other thing: There is a sudden upsurge in ads. It is like a flood. In, say, a 15 minute video, I will get two ads before I start, then two a few minutes later, then again, then again. Often they are the same ads, and often they don't give the option to "skip". Half of a 10 to 15 minute video are ads. I often just back out of the video, since is rarely worth it now.

Nothing else on the app changed. I still have all my subscriptions listed, and my VIEWING history is intact.

I've restarted the app, and the unit, and it does not help. I do not have Pi-hole on my network. I do have adblock on my firefox browers, on my laptop, but I don't think that would affect my Roku youtube app. Am I wrong? Thanks for any help in advance...

Proto.