I used to use RiF back in the day when it was still a buggy mess. I don’t even remember when I moved to the native app. I don’t agree with Reddit’s policy update (why I’m here) but I thought the default app was fine for normal browsing. I never had issues with the video player or anything else.
I use Samsung Galaxy devices if that’s relevant.
Always used the native app, actually didn’t know about 3P apps for a long time. Never felt the need to try them, though. I guess the video player sometimes just didn’t work, but no complaints otherwise tbh. (But yes, I got pro partially to get rid of ads, partially to support a platform that I used heavily and partially to get some coins to spend on awards).