I’m fine with the merch window in the sidebar, although lately they’ve added an overlay on desktop that appears over the video (even in fullscreen) that I think is going to get annoying real quick if they keep it around. If I’m watching a video from a creator, there’s a good chance I’ll be interested in their merch, and having a standard place for creators to show off merch without having to shill it in every video, is a feature worth having IMO. But I don’t want anything overlayed on the video - especially in fullscreen, and if anything it makes me less likely to support the creator by buying merch - even though the overlay is almost certainly something Google added without any opt-in from creators.