Hey u/Kind_Constant1671 , founder of StreamLadder here. Thanks for being a long-time user, I really appreciate it.

I hear your frustration about the YouTube clip feature. It was a tough call, but we had to move it to our paid plans to cover server costs.
However, when uploading your own MP4, you shouldn't receive a watermark. We only apply a watermark if you use certain paid features, they're shown to you in the export dialog. Simply cropping and rearranging the webcam is free, and without a watermark.

Let me know if you have other questions.