And for those who haven't given their credit card number, as a protection against abuse or "accidental" purchases (in-app, in-game, premium content, etc.), this looks like a suspiciously-convenient-to-Google mechanism for acquiring CC data.

We were previously told that it was advisable to use YouTube under an alias, and that other personal information such as phone numbers would be used only for account verification.

Those policies were rescinded or proved to be lies.

Google have no credibility here.