mpv? yt-dlp?
mpv is a media player, kind of like VLC but more powerful and lightweight.
yt-dlp is a CLI (command line interface) tool that allows you to download youtube videos as videos, videos without audio, or just as audio files.
Personally, I copy the url from the link or at worst the url bar after clicking into youtube.
Then 'mpv + [pasted url]' into a terminal (I use Yakuake as a quick terminal) and it's away quicker than youtube.com anyway.
mpv automagically invokes ytdl/yt-dlp if you have it installed on linux or if it's in the same directory as mpv or in a directory added to your windows search paths on windows. MacOS, just use a package manager like macports/homebrew.