The truth is, YouTube is losing money. They are trying to make using the site as unpleasant as possible. That way everyone will leave YouTube and go find something else.

How else do you explain the terrible layout changes, forcing people to use their real names, constant buffering, and shitty paid studio shills filling the recommended video boxes?

It's a commercialized pile of shit now. It's no longer YouTube, its Paid Studio Shill Tube....