I don't want a PLAY MUTE PAUSE not even a CLOSE button. Especially NOT when they have their own internal state for then they choose to appear and disappear.
I don't want to pay attention to them, I don't want to have to look for them, I don't want them getting in my way any more.
If I want to close a tab, I middle click it ! I already have global mute controls, I don't need an extra volume control, I don't have "tabs making unwanted sounds" problem because I have "Go To Sound Tab" addon installed, so I can easily find any tabs that makes sound and mute it correctly, without a extra, unneeded layer of muting (tab muting, versus app muting versus player muting, that is too many muting options, I don't want to use tab muting personnally so I want these buttons out of here !)
I don't want to have to rely on running violentmonkey script engine on top of my already sluggish browser when I barely have 6615 open tabs.
I want to disable the feature at the root, inside firefox, not patch up webpages like dark reader does.
AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh h!!!!!!
And I don't want to have to install an addon just so that I can find and mute/close some random tab that's playing unwanted sounds.
Yet, for now, even "just" installing an addon would be nice, now we have to edit config files ! and it doesn't even really work to shut it down !
What I'm saying is that I actually like the mute button and I don't understand why some are so upset about it. Your post doesn't help to clarify other saying you already have an addon that serves a similar purpose.
The addon I have is called "find sound tab"
I never need to mute tabs, when a tab makes a sound, I click that button, it brings me to that tab and I can mute or rather just pause the thing inside it that is making sound.
I don't have an addon that remove the play/mute/close buttons, and I am often pressing them by accident, losing tabs or getting annoying that stuff in other tabs starts playing, or why the sound doesn't work again, it's always from accidentally pressing a button when I mean to select or drag and drop a tab.
I'm not saying it should be removed from firefox, I'm saying it should be something I can turn off easily, preferably in the settings menu or by installing an addon.
The proposed fix of editing the userchrome.css setting file, mostly doesn't work, because the youtube javascript keeps overriding it and putting the buttons back.
One of the worst thing about these buttons is how they are only intermittently there, so you have to always look out for them. I think they really suck and I just want an OFF button for them. But everywhere this is brought up, the same things are said and the conclusion ends up being "ok everything's fine we don't need to do anything"