They had to get it out by tomorrow, when Apple will release (or at least announce) iPhone 6 and iOS 6 without the Youtube app.

This looks like a rush job, but they'll likely improve it quickly. The Google+ app was totally horrible in the beginning, but they quickly made it one of the best social networking apps on iOS.

The icon isn't as sloppy on the homescreen itself, in fact the whole app is done quite well. Native, fast and leap years ahead of m.youtube.com - I was hesitant at first to upgrade to iOS6, because of the removal, but now I'm confident enough that they'll pull of a better version for the iPad too.

They might have just set the priority differently, given the time and resource constraints.