For an slightly better but still degraded experience they want you on Google Chrome. But remember please use 360p or lower so their poor servers don't have to work so hard, they even help you do this by default on mobile!
That's a lot of effort, given how many people I am subscribed to. And I wouldn't say that it' "peanuts", after all they redistribute 55% of YouTube Premium earnings, that's a lot more than what other similar subscriptions give.
Would you support that kind of business model if you were at the other end, knowing full well you could be earning more? Then again, this is an age-old question...