The new version of freetube added a extra big play button on videos whenever you stop, play, pause, or hover the mouse over the video player. I found it quite annoying.
Today I discovered in Settings, Player, "Display Play Button in Video Player" - removes it!!!!!
i suspect they changed it to avoid any possible youtube trademark confusion, the old small button looked exactly like the youtube icon on youtube.
This change came when they switched from the old player to this new one, I always figured it had to do with that.