Yes, I’ve experienced that too. Newpipe generally functions smoothly on my phone, working around 98% of the time. However, when I opt for invidious, the videos sometimes doesn’t play.
Recently, I’ve been leaning towards using Freetube more. I’ve configured it to include invidious in the settings. It appears that it seamlessly switches between different invidious instances, ensuring an better user experience than just using a normal invidious instance.