Content costs money, and if I don’t want ads, I need to pay the difference. I where a little surprised to see Linus Tech Tips break down they income and showing that Youtube Premium as significant source of revenue.
I remember trying to get the Guardians of the Galaxy awesome mix, and it only had a youtube video with all songs glued together. Also, it was a bit weird experience overall because they matched so many random videos
My other hunch is that it would make the non ad-free experience greatly cheapened in the eyes of the consumer, in the same way youtube with ads feels different after experiencing youtube premium.
They’re betting they can get more out of advertisers than paying subscribers.
YouTube in the browser has almost all features of the app now, so there's no compelling reason to use the YouTube app.
The irony is that I was a Google Play Music subscriber until its death but in my country you still had the Youtube ads.