No, I think it has to do more with money. I wonder if YouTube is still losing money, and might not even be profitable. It's hard to believe with all the revenue they post and the ads, but they do serve a lot of videos.

Alphabet can't drastically change YouTube, as its brand is so closely tied to Google in the minds of a lot of people. (I'm still surprised how many people don't realize YouTube is owned by Google/Alphabet).