Well, per the article it affects your searches and similar videos pop up. Maybe they'll get enough traffic to...I don't know. It doesn't seem like YouTube monetization is an achievable goal, right?

Maybe hotlinking? Or some wierd grooming attempt?

But the guy below who suspects it's censor circumvention makes sense- it seems to be something like a dirty CD set to a coloring program.

Children probably aren't the target, but victims still.