Exactly. How do we know this wasn’t just copyright protection? And in any case, YouTube is notorious for removing anything controversial with no regard for censorship concerns. It’s what they do.
He's allowed to post short clips from his Spotify episodes on YouTube, these were what was deleted. He hasn't had full episodes on YouTube ever since he moved to Spotify.
The reason he doesn't publish more videos is that if he does Youtube will give him more 'strikes' and eventually delete his channel and all his content
It is strategically better to preserve his existing YT presence. And for that it is smart not to publish anything else
copies of the podcast not published by Rogan, on Youtube, were removed.