I wasn't talking about consumption, I was talking about the people making the videos. They do not want people to watch it in 480p unless it's the last resort. It's a similar mindset to famous directors hating when people watch their movies on phones.

I've fought and lost this battle many many times, and have used mobile bandwidth as a reason too.

High resolution video hosting/streaming is free, so no one wants to pay to host it. I think there are major downsides to hosting on YouTube, but in my experience the vast majority of people do not care.