Ya. That’s the point. They don’t want you consuming their server CPU cycles unless you are paying for it via youtube premium, or advertisers are paying for it.
I paid $12 to watch oppenheimer and that was 3 hours. I watch way more than 3 hours of youtube every week. Easily worth paying for premium.
Youtube operated at a loss for many years. I think it still does. Google has many products. They take the profit from one product to offset the losses from youtube.
Econ 101. Stay in school.