I'm assuming they have a profit motive not a moral one. I could be wrong but I'm very cynical when it comes to the motives of big companies.
Since no regulator would touch social media regulation because of how that looks, however if it enables people dieing at a unprecedented rate then regulators may feel their hand is forced to do something.(facebook/instagram right now is in hot water with regulators too) I doubt anything regulation wise would help or even be good, this is just youtube making sure it looks like the market is regulating itself.
I think also this is to signal to other users 'see we don't pick favourites anyone can get banned'