I understand your frustration. I too deeply dislike Youtube's home page. It is very distracting for me.
My solution is to use ublock origin. It is an adblocker add-on that allows you to choose elements on any page to block from loading. If you use "zapper" mode, it will let you choose elements to block with the mouse cursor (the elements will be highlighted yellow).
I used zapper mode to turn off everything below the search bar. As a result, my youtube homepage now looks like this:
Very nice and clean! :)
The only problem I have is, this method causes youtube channels to go blank too. If you open a user's channel, then their page will be blank too. However, ublock origin can be turned on and off very easily. You can even turn it off only for a specific page, so if you find a channel you want to see, then use this option. The channel will load, but you will still be blocking the youtube home page elements.
I hope this helps you as it has helped me.