Definitely don’t go to fmhy.net and definitly don’t join the !piracy community. Also don’t visit torrentgalaxy.to, 1337x.to or solidtorrents.to. You probably also wouldn’t want to check out rutracker.org or therarbg.com.
I’m pretty happy with Simple Gallery by Simple Mobile Tools. These guys make great minimal FOSS apps that respect your privacy. Just make sure to download it from F-Droid, since the Google Play version doesn’t have all the features. If you dislike F-Droid, you can also use Obtanium to directly pull from their GitHub repo. It also notifies you whenever an update is available, and it allows you to download and install new versions of an app.
You might want to change the Piped backend instance in the settings. Google is currently trying to IP-ban all Piped servers, just find an instance that works well. You need to click on the three dots, then select settings, go to ‘Instance’ and at the top you can hit ‘Choose…’ to change the Piped instance. I haven’t experienced any issues with adminforge.de.
Why would you use a Google app for listening to podcasts? Just use AntennaPod. It’s completely free and open source (GPLv3), unlike Google apps, it’s not filled with spyware and it has way more features. It’s also available on F-Droid.
Use LibreTube. It doesn’t have ads, it protects your privacy and it has full Material You support. It also has SponsorBlock and DeArrow built in. It’s just a superior YouTube experience.
Try the Universal Android Debloater. You can also use it to remove a lot of other pre-installed crap from your phone. Debloating improves your storage, battery consumption and your privacy.